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<title>04 June, 2023</title>
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<title>Daily-Dose</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><style>*{overflow-x:hidden;}</style><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Irrational Exuberance of a Non-Catastrophe</strong> - The bipartisan debt deal was a win for both Biden and McCarthy, but it might not have been the breakthrough Washington was waiting for. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/the-irrational-exuberance-of-a-non-catastrophe">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Abortion Fight Has Voters Turning to Ballot Initiatives</strong> - And Republicans are increasingly attempting to limit that direct-democracy option. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-abortion-fight-has-voters-turning-to-ballot-initiatives">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Confession Exposes India’s Secret Hacking Industry</strong> - The country has developed a lucrative specialty: cyberattacks for hire. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-crime/a-confession-exposes-indias-secret-hacking-industry">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Should We, and Can We, Put the Brakes on Artificial Intelligence?</strong> - Sam Altman, who ushered in ChatGPT, and Yoshua Bengio, an early pioneer of A.I., discuss the growing concerns surrounding unfettered, nonhuman intelligence. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-new-yorker-radio-hour/should-we-and-can-we-put-the-brakes-on-artificial-intelligence">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ted Koppel on Covering—and Befriending—Henry Kissinger</strong> - Did the veteran newscaster give Kissinger a pass on his hundredth birthday? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/ted-koppel-on-covering-and-befriending-henry-kissinger">link</a></p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
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<li><strong>A personality test can’t tell you who you are</strong> -
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<img alt="An illustration of a woman with a bob haircut and blunt bangs and red lipstick looking at her reflection in a mirror. " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Ur8UemKLHkczN-baqarhJ5ujnwM=/0x100:4000x3100/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72339635/GettyImages_1003489906.0.jpg"/>
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Getty Images
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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The desire to define ourselves, from love languages to Myers-Briggs types.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wfpCna">
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Juanita Hernandez is a 25-year-old Miami-based anxiously attached Aries (Scorpio moon, Taurus rising), ENFJ, Enneagram Type Two. Until recently, she considered quality time her love language, but after listening to an <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-5-love-languages/id1651876897?i=1000609782068">episode of the podcast <em>If Books Could Kill</em></a>, she now thinks love languages are “kind of bullshit.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="H9SjFr">
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Her path toward inner omniscience first began with a foundation in astrology, which Hernandez says she discovered as a child. Then came <a href="https://www.enneagraminstitute.com/">Enneagram</a> — a personality test labeling respondents with one of <a href="https://www.enneagraminstitute.com/type-descriptions">nine types</a> — which predated learning her <a href="https://www.vox.com/even-better/23581174/attachment-styles-explain-anxious-avoidant-secure">attachment style</a> at the behest of her therapist. Later, she took the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2014/7/15/5881947/myers-briggs-personality-test-meaningless">Myers-Briggs Type Indicator</a>.
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Just as a medical diagnosis can explain a patient’s symptoms, Hernandez sees personality identifiers as succinct validation for why she is the way she is. She attributes descriptors such as “insecure,” “reliable,” and having an “intense relationship with your mother” to her various personality types. Whenever she mentions her astrological sign or attachment style to other similarly personality-informed conversation partners, “I feel like they understand who I am just by these signifiers,” Hernandez says. “It makes conversations easier.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uMKWEc">
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People have long been motivated to define the inner workings of their minds, but never quite had the wide array of tools or language to clearly communicate who they are until fairly recently. From Myers-Briggs and Enneagram to love languages and Hogwarts houses, we are sufficiently armed with the means to classify and define ourselves — and with bite-sized descriptors in which to broadcast our findings.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5yZTw0">
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These assessments and quizzes and identifiers, though, only tell one side of the multidimensional story that is a human life. Self-reflection has its utility, but a test or a rigid personality type may not provide the answers we’re looking for. The question of whether we can ever truly know ourselves — and whether the means of obtaining that information from a quiz is legitimate — isn’t as important as what we do with that insight.
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<h3 id="AMrPmn">
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The quest for self-knowledge is as old as humanity
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We’ve been attempting to make sense of our minds, our personalities, our motivations, for millennia. The origin of the age-old axiom <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00131857.2019.1682489">“know thyself” extends as far back as Ancient Greece,</a> after all. In contemporary times, the rise of psychoanalysis and the belief that an all-knowing shrink can mine your psyche was a strong “cultural prompt” inspiring people toward introspection, says <a href="https://uconn.academia.edu/MitchGreen">Mitch Green</a>, a professor of philosophy at the University of Connecticut and author of <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781315560298/know-thyself-mitchell-green"><em>Know Thyself: The Value and Limits of Self-Knowledge</em></a>.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="j5cRBe">
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In 1917, American personality testing began in earnest with <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19048975/">Woodworth’s Personal Data Sheet</a>, an assessment given to soldiers during World War I to identify those who might react negatively to enemy fire. In the 1940s, Katherine Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers <a href="https://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/">developed the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator</a> based on the <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1923-15006-000">work of Carl Jung</a>, who posited that people were either introverted or extroverted; that test ascribes one of <a href="https://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/the-16-mbti-types.htm">16 personality types</a> based on where test-takers lean when it comes to extraversion versus introversion, judging versus perceiving, intuition versus sensing, and thinking versus feeling.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kG7h25">
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Less than a century later, there are hundreds of assessments and classification systems, measuring everything from <a href="https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/quizzes/ei_quiz/take_quiz">emotional intelligence</a> to <a href="https://5lovelanguages.com/">how you display love</a>, and ranging in scientific validity. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is <a href="https://www.vox.com/2014/7/15/5881947/myers-briggs-personality-test-meaningless">notoriously based on unproven theories</a> and was conceived of by a mother-daughter pair with no formal psychology training. <a href="https://www.vox.com/even-better/23581174/attachment-styles-explain-anxious-avoidant-secure">Attachment styles are ever-changing</a> and can vary from relationship to relationship. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/feb/14/love-languages-are-hugely-popular-but-theres-very-little-evidence-they-exist-at-all">Research about love languages</a> is not definitive regarding whether the five love language categories — acts of service, physical touch, quality time, gifts, and words of affirmation — are accurate.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Jgfsif">
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Other assessments are revenue drivers in a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/05/business/remote-work-personality-tests.html">$2 billion industry</a> based on the premise of self-enlightenment: know how you react and respond in situations both professional and personal and crack the code to interpersonal relationships. Most people recognize BuzzFeed quizzes such as “<a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/jamiejirak1/quiz-succession-character-roy-family">What <em>Succession</em> character are you?</a>” as purely for entertainment purposes, but when your company requests employees take an evaluation commonly used in work settings, like the <a href="https://www.16personalities.com/">16 Personalities assessment</a>, which remixes the 16 Myers-Briggs personality types by adding another letter — <a href="https://www.16personalities.com/articles/our-theory">A or T, for assertive or turbulent</a> — the line is blurred.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NGL6Rq">
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“There’s just so many random supposed ‘personality assessments,’” says <a href="https://obu.edu/directory/fayardj.php">Jennifer Fayard</a>, an associate professor of psychology at Ouachita Baptist University. “And they’re absolute rubbish. They are made by random people with no training or no understanding. Just because you get a result on a personality quiz doesn’t mean that it means anything.”
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Poor design is a feature, not a bug, of personality assessments, says <a href="https://www.cpp.edu/cba/international-business-marketing/faculty-and-staff/bios/randy-stein.shtml">Randy Stein</a>, a professor of marketing at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. In a <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1948550618766409?casa_token=D0PfcdlJdhAAAAAA:n5dSmY_lo17eqcIOZyk0w_kt8-A1HTXPSKpfBRARd9m9-P9TttyOlVkBmXHrqjZAIpTdcK7hDSBr">study of personality assessments</a>, Stein found that the more opaque or confusing the questions, the “deeper” respondents considered the test. “The more disconnected the questions and the results, the more it seems to be getting at something underlying who you really are,” or so the reasoning goes, according to Stein. If questions on a personality quiz can be interpreted five different ways by as many people, test-takers trick themselves into thinking the assessment is uncovering something so profound that they never considered it before. However, legitimate personality assessments have questions so specific that each respondent interprets them in the same way, Stein says. It’s the difference between an abstract question like, “<a href="https://www.lifeconnectionsonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Keirsey-Temperament-Sorter.pdf">Are you drawn more to (a) fundamentals (b) overtones and nuance?</a>” and rating how strongly you agree with a clear statement like, <a href="https://openpsychometrics.org/tests/IPIP-BFFM/">“I get stressed out easily.”</a>
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In reality, the results of personality tests and self-identifiers are never wholly surprising. If they were, the assessment was either poorly designed or you answered the questions inauthentically. “We live with ourselves, we watch what we do, and we watch how we feel and how we think,” Fayard says. “Despite that insider information, I think there’s still a tendency for people to assume that if they take a test, it’s going to spit out some magical secret that’s going to help them understand themselves better.” On the contrary, these quizzes are like a mirror, reflecting back exactly what you show it. If I always feel anxious when people are slow to text me back, and I know this to be a hallmark of <a href="https://psychcentral.com/health/4-attachment-styles-in-relationships#anxious-attachment">anxious attachment style</a>, then I can deduce I am anxiously attached.
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But life is a mosaic of experiences and emotions. It is nearly impossible to put one label on a person’s existence, one box in which to place yourself. In parallel with the <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2021/9/30/22696338/pathologizing-adhd-autism-anxiety-internet-tiktok-twitter">rise of online self-diagnosis</a> — where <a href="https://www.vox.com/internet-culture">memes</a> and TikToks seemingly describe symptoms of many conditions, from ADHD to autism spectrum disorder — self-categorization allows people to put a stamp on what is typically a complex condition. Explanations of each type are simplified and broad, meant to have as wide an appeal as possible for those looking for “a simple explanation for the complex mess that is my life and my relationship with people,” Green says. “It’d be nice if there was a single one-paragraph narrative that puts it all together. We tend to gravitate toward those things.”
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Relationships and personalities aren’t so neatly defined. Personality traits are measured on a spectrum, not in binaries, says <a href="https://www.simine.com/">Simine Vazire,</a> a professor of psychology ethics and well-being at the University of Melbourne. Rather than being extroverted or not, most people have some percentage of extraversion. The <a href="https://www.truity.com/test/big-five-personality-test">Big Five personality test</a>, which Vazire considers an accurate assessment, measures to what degree you inhabit the “big five” personality traits: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. Rather than sort test-takers into strict types, it merely informs you whether you’re high in neuroticism or low in agreeableness. But percentiles aren’t sexy; they don’t make for good conversation. “It’s not how we communicate,” Vazire says. “I say, ‘How are you?’ … You don’t tell me, ‘Well, I’m 17 percent as good as yesterday.’” That we’d lean toward clear-cut terminology to describe ourselves isn’t altogether shocking.
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Because descriptions of many “types” or “styles” or “signs” — from zodiac sign to Enneagram type — are vague and broad, people often find something in it they identify with, known as the <a href="https://dictionary.apa.org/barnum-effect">Barnum effect</a>. Any person who reads any vague descriptor claiming to explain who they are could realistically find something in the passage that resonates with them, Stein says, something that makes them say, “This is <em>so</em> me.”
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Personality types as a force for change
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To feel seen, of course, is often what people want.
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A few years ago, Andrew Flynn was in a turbulent period of his life: He’d just finished grad school in Scotland, moved to Westminster, Colorado, where he lives now, and started a job in <a href="https://www.vox.com/renewable-energy">renewable energy</a> tech. All the while, his relationships felt more tenuous than ever. He was embroiled in conflict with his roommates, romantic relationships weren’t panning out. In an effort to understand himself — and how he connected, or didn’t, to the people in his life — he took a free version of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator online and discovered he was an ENTP. Described as <a href="https://www.mbtionline.com/en-US/MBTI-Types/ENTP">“innovative,” “entrepreneurial,” and “unpredictable,”</a> Flynn, now 33, says the ENTP signifier “summarizes my existence in a really succinct, bizarre way.” From his penchant for procrastination or conversations some might not consider “polite,” he says, learning his personality type provided context for his interpersonal relationships, both romantic and platonic. He’s become more observant about how other people react at work or while dating, noticing others’ behavior in contrast to his own impulses. “I can see a lot of the ways that I could be doing things better and then I just choose not to,” Flynn says. “I understand how I’m going to fuck this up and I’m just going to continue to carry on this way anyway.”
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The validation provided by self-identifiers can inspire tangible change. Knowing your attachment style within a particular relationship can <a href="https://www.vox.com/even-better/23581174/attachment-styles-explain-anxious-avoidant-secure">explain why you feel clingy or distant</a> and help illuminate areas for growth. However, it’s arguably easier and cheaper to watch a YouTube video or take a quiz online than it is to seek out a <a href="https://www.vox.com/mental-health">mental health</a> professional, pay for therapy, and spend time working through those issues (though that’s hardly necessary).
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Taking stock of past trauma helped 35-year-old Randy Kakumei develop healthier relationships — all thanks to attachment style. Following a breakup nearly a decade ago, Kakumei’s only motivation was to reconcile with his ex. Like any web-savvy millennial, he searched YouTube for videos on how to get back together with a former partner. Instead, he found a video explaining attachment styles. The clip, Kakumei says, illustrated the qualities of a relationship between an anxiously attached person and an avoidantly attached person: The anxious character feels needy and insecure, the avoidant party pulls away. “It was like she was describing my relationship between me and my partner,” Kakumei, who lives in Slidell, Louisiana, says, “like, to a T.”
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From the video, Kakumei deduced he had an anxious attachment style with his former partner, stemming from fraught relationships with parental figures in his childhood. Kakumei was adopted as a child to an older couple with military backgrounds who he says were cold and unloving. “It’s been a constant battle of feeling like I’m not enough,” he says. “Nobody’s going to accept me. Nobody loves me. Nobody cares about me.” In his adult relationships, he says, he constantly sought validation to compensate for the affection he lacked growing up.
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Learning his attachment style was revelatory. Suddenly, Kakumei had a name for emotions and fears he believed were singular to his experience. Through working with a life coach and confronting his past — realizing the stories he told himself about being undeserving of love were just that: stories — Kakumei says he now is securely attached. About six months after their breakup, Kakumei reconciled with his ex. They are still together.
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Attachment style can be an effective tool for parsing the dynamics of different relationships, Fayard says. But when we too heavily ascribe to one classification or identifier, we run the risk of using these personality types to justify bad behavior. Introverts may feel their personality type gives them permission to avoid social contact or reject a potential romantic partner because they may have a supposedly conflicting personality type. Clinging to specific descriptors makes it easier for people to put blinders up to certain aspects of their personalities because they aren’t neatly aligned with their type, Fayard says. “People I know that are really into the Enneagram, if they have things that maybe are causing some relationship issues or [things they] just need to work on, you hear a lot of ‘That’s just my type, that’s just my type,’” she says. “It’s almost like, ‘I don’t need to examine myself or work on myself or make any concessions because this is my type.’ I think that could potentially be harmful.”
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Some fans of Enneagram, like Jenna DeWitt, a 34-year-old from Redlands, California, see the personality type as a means for personal development. “You’re supposed to grow out of that type,” DeWitt says. About a decade ago, DeWitt took the Enneagram test and discovered she was a Type Three, which she describes as someone who believes they need to earn their worth, “believing you have to work really hard to get love from other people,” she says. But instead of fixating on the type’s shortcomings, like <a href="https://www.enneagraminstitute.com/how-the-enneagram-system-works">shame</a> or burnout, DeWitt uses her type to understand what drives her and how to utilize qualities of other types — the strength of Eights, the creativity of Fours — to her advantage. “I have learned as a Three that I was using these accomplishments, the tasks that I had in front of me to get done for the day. … It really felt like every time I was trying to achieve more and more I wasn’t getting what I really wanted,” DeWitt says. “What I want is love and belonging. What I want is to have that security in my identity, to feel like I truly am worthy of the things around me.”
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For all the self-insight we possess, we are not the most accurate judges of our personalities. We <a href="https://www.vox.com/even-better/23670005/small-acts-kindness-matter-liking-gap">underestimate how much others appreciate us</a> and <a href="https://www.apa.org/monitor/feb03/overestimate">overestimate our own competence</a>. It’s more pleasant to think about all of the times we were kind over the instances we were not, and this selective memory can impact how we report seeing ourselves. Any quiz or category we lump ourselves into doesn’t take into account how others perceive us. Short of asking our friends to compile a Powerpoint presentation of all of our strengths and weaknesses, Vazire says a more holistic way of learning about ourselves is to share our personality test results with people we trust to see how it compares to their view of us. “I don’t know that I would recommend it,” she says. “I’ve never actually gotten that far in my research where we just literally told people how other people close to them saw them. I don’t know that we can know if we’re ready for that information.”
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Perhaps all we can tolerate — all we’re willing to tolerate — is what we already knew about ourselves all along: our willingness to speak up in work meetings, how we react to our partners, our organizational skills. Ascribing labels to the way we see ourselves can be clarifying when so much of life is convoluted and without clear explanations. But it isn’t all we are.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rebl7W">
|
||
“Simple explanations are good,” Green says. “But simple explanations are hard to find.”
|
||
</p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>The deadly train collision in India, explained</strong> -
|
||
<figure>
|
||
<img alt="INDIA-ACCIDENT-RAIL" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/DpfUXJdaBOjkuJKto3k-8gIs0fs=/136x0:2624x1866/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72338695/1258402483.0.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Photo by PUNIT PARANJPE/AFP via Getty Images
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Decades of neglect cause disaster after disaster on India’s railways.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CIJszb">
|
||
A railway accident in the Indian state of Odisha has killed at least 280 people and injured more than 800 on Friday — the latest such tragedy to occur in a nation where trains are widely used, but often lack up-to-date infrastructure.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yJ2fQd">
|
||
Prime Minister Narendra Modi traveled to Odisha Saturday and offered consolation for the victims and their families <a href="https://twitter.com/narendramodi/status/1664665463450918913">via Twitter on Friday</a>, saying “Distressed by the train accident in Odisha. In this hour of grief, my thoughts are with the bereaved families. May the injured recover soon.” Upon his arrival at the accident site, Modi promised that the government would leave “no stone unturned for the treatment of those injured” and vowed that those responsible would be “punished stringently.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9vdB7T">
|
||
Early reports indicate that a passenger train headed to Kolkata from Chennai collided with a stopped commercial train in Balasore district; another passenger train, the Howrah Superfast Express, then hit the wreckage, though the exact sequence of events has been disputed, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-65798640">the BBC reports</a>. The incident is still being investigated, and rescue operations have ceased as of Saturday, with those seriously injured taken to the state’s largest hospital in Cuttack, a three-hour drive away. People searching for missing or injured relatives have r<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-65795959">eported confusion and a lack of information</a> about their status and whereabouts, highlighting some of the country’s many infrastructure challenges.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="19PDpU">
|
||
<a href="https://www.vox.com/india">India</a>’s railway system was constructed in the 19th century, when the country was a British colony, and serves millions of people each day. Though it’s an important part of the country’s transit system, it’s long suffered from underinvestment, and deadly, destructive accidents are not uncommon. Friday’s accident has been referred to as the worst in the 21st century thus far.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4MaYUX">
|
||
Modi’s government <a href="https://www.economist.com/asia/2023/03/13/india-is-getting-an-eye-wateringly-big-transport-upgrade">has recently announced major spending</a> on the transit and railway systems, including high-speed, indigenously produced trains between major transit corridors. But many such upgrades are years away, require mountains of outside investment and must wind through a labyrinthine government bureaucracy to take effect.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="wUGF9c">
|
||
<strong>India’s train system is one of the deadliest in the world</strong>
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ti37tZ">
|
||
India’s railway system is in some ways a marvel, in that it connects a massive country together, is an affordable mode of <a href="https://www.vox.com/transportation">transportation</a> that serves 13 million people each day according to state-run Indian Railways, and connects India’s large rural population to its urban areas.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wSlZUX">
|
||
The railway system also spurred economic growth after it was first introduced in 1853, because it could move commodities both internally and internationally far more quickly than traditional transportation. The <a href="https://www.vox.com/economy">economy</a> still depends on rail transportation, to an extent, though increased roadways and a large auto industry have increased Indians’ auto ownership from 115 million in 2009 to 295,800,000 in 2019, according to <a href="https://morth.nic.in/sites/default/files/RTYB-2017-18-2018-19.pdf">a report from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highway Transport</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fzo4S2">
|
||
Still, people all over the country depend on India’s old, overcrowded trains for all aspects of life<strong> </strong>despite the massive numbers of accidents and deaths that occur on India’s <a href="https://apnews.com/article/india-train-derail-railways-39c8d563458816624c337e1fee400090#:~:text=From%202017%20to%202021%2C%20there,speeding%20trains%20on%20the%20tracks.">more than 40,000 miles of railway</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Zhv2BC">
|
||
In October 2018, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/19/world/asia/india-fireworks-train.html">a commuter train slammed through a crowd</a> gathering to celebrate the Hindu festival of Dussehra in Amritsar, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/india/indias-deadliest-rail-accidents-2023-06-02/">leaving at least 59 dead and injuring at least 57.</a> Some <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/india-accident-idINKCN1MU06Y">blamed</a> the festival goers for gathering on the tracks; others, the guest of honor for his late arrival and the railways for not stopping the train. Train derailments caused serious incidents in 2005, 2011, 2016, and 2017, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/india/indias-deadliest-rail-accidents-2023-06-02/">according to Reuters</a>, and India’s deadliest train accident occurred in 1981, when a cyclone blew seven overcrowded coaches on a passenger train into a river in the northeastern state of Bihar.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="r2f274">
|
||
According to <a href="https://ncrb.gov.in/sites/default/files/ADSI-2021/ADSI_2021_FULL_REPORT.pdf">India’s National Crime Records Bureau</a>, there were around 100,000 railway-related deaths in the country between 2017 and 2021. About 69 percent of India’s 2,017 train accidents during that time period were due to derailments caused by old signaling equipment, poorly-maintained infrastructure, track defects, and human error, according to a 2021 report from <a href="https://cag.gov.in/webroot/uploads/download_audit_report/2022/Report-No.-22-of-2022_Railway_English_DSC-063a2dda55f3ce6.38649271.pdf">India’s Comptroller and Auditor General</a>. A lack of funding or refusal to use funding to fix railroad tracks also contributed to those accidents.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PtgQPf">
|
||
Indian Railways, the government-owned railway enterprise, has long given subsidies to help keep fare prices low; according to<a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/national/railways-gave-rs-59837-crore-subsidy-on-passenger-tickets-ashwini-vaishnaw-1187618.html"> Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw</a>, the government subsidy amounted to about 53 percent for each person traveling in the fiscal year 2019-2020. An announcement that the government would raise the price of tickets by 14.2 percent in 2014 <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2014/06/the-economics-of-indias-railways/">spurred protests across the country</a>, with people occupying rail stations and demonstrating in the streets to try and block the move.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CNgRw7">
|
||
Railways, which under Modi are improving, are still a popular transit option, and the government’s upgrades aim to make it even more so in order to counterweight India’s burgeoning reliance on automobile transportation. But while India’s economy is growing, that doesn’t necessarily translate to the average person, who still needs a low-cost, safe option to get where they want to go.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="DCiQCm">
|
||
<strong>What will the government do to improve the train system?</strong>
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dqlqJI">
|
||
Instead of visiting Odisha, Modi was supposed to be at the <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/pm-modi-to-flag-off-goas-first-vande-bharat-express-on-june-3/articleshow/100706505.cms">unveiling of a new Vande Bharat Express line from Goa to Mumbai</a>, part of his announced investments in the transportation sector. The service initially launched in 2019, and Modi’s government plans to inaugurate 500 new such lines in the next three years, <a href="https://www.economist.com/asia/2023/03/13/india-is-getting-an-eye-wateringly-big-transport-upgrade">the Economist </a>reports.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="G30IMC">
|
||
The high-speed railway system is just part of Modi’s transportation boom; his government is also building 10,000 kilometers of highway each year and has nearly doubled the length of the country’s rural road network since he was elected in 2014. Those efforts, along with increased domestic energy generation and improved broadband activity, all aim to boost India’s economic growth and turn it into a $5 trillion economy by 2026.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6UufU0">
|
||
Though the extent to which the railway system was responsible for India’s economic growth in the 19th and early 20th centuries <a href="https://deliverypdf.ssrn.com/delivery.php?ID=425124115112024113022117020007117064052051040011030092064113072119081103025102098118097012061055040113125092120103103025096109051022049037045012071066019022122088056008049031112005095026107112079066069076111080105122024003075117013084086127066008100&EXT=pdf&INDEX=TRUE">is debatable according to some scholars</a>, Modi’s plans to shore up the aging system follow the generally accepted logic that improved transport will dramatically change the economy.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lQifay">
|
||
While infrastructure upgrades are clearly necessary, Friday’s deadly collision shows how much there is left to be done — and how critical the focus on passenger safety must be.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gEAL7t">
|
||
“India has achieved some success in making train journeys safer over the years, but a lot more needs to be done,” Swapnil Garg, a former officer of the Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/india-train-derail-railways-39c8d563458816624c337e1fee400090#:~:text=From%202017%20to%202021%2C%20there,speeding%20trains%20on%20the%20tracks.">told the Associated Press</a>. “The entire system needs a realignment and distributed development. We can’t just focus on modern trains and have tracks that aren’t safe.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="00JQ8N">
|
||
In the meantime, the government is offering cash payouts for victims of the crash and their loved ones. On Friday, <a href="https://twitter.com/AshwiniVaishnaw/status/1664676130408878080">Vaishnaw tweeted</a> that victims were entitled to 1 million Indian rupees for a dead relative, Rs 200,000 in case of “grievous” injury, and Rs 50,000 for minor ones — about $12,000, $2,400, and $600 respectively.
|
||
</p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>What will stop AI from flooding the internet with fake images?</strong> -
|
||
<figure>
|
||
<img alt="A cartoon image of a man sitting at a desk using a 2000s-era computer and looking frustrated." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ZukC-E46tkET_ooWtIEqxvY-AwU=/500x0:5863x4022/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72337690/GettyImages_532629665.0.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
CSA Archive / Getty Images
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Google, Adobe, Microsoft, and other tech companies are trying new ways to label content made by AI.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GT99O8">
|
||
On May 22, a fake photo of an explosion at the Pentagon <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/05/22/1177590231/fake-viral-images-of-an-explosion-at-the-pentagon-were-probably-created-by-ai">caused chaos online</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5rnEUU">
|
||
Within a matter of minutes of being posted, the realistic-looking image <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-22/fake-ai-photo-of-pentagon-blast-goes-viral-trips-stocks-briefly?sref=qYiz2hd0">spread on Twitter and other social media networks</a> after being retweeted by some popular accounts. Reporters asked government officials all the way up to the <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05/30/white-house-press-shop-adjusts-to-proliferation-of-ai-deep-fakes-00099337">White House press office</a> what was going on.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pU6ntv">
|
||
The photo was quickly determined to be a hoax, likely generated by AI. But in the short amount of time it circulated, the fake image had a real impact and even briefly moved <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/technology/4015817-market-dips-briefly-after-ai-image-of-fake-explosion-near-pentagon-goes-viral/">financial markets</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="T2TeFL">
|
||
This isn’t an entirely new problem. Online misinformation has existed since the dawn of the internet, and crudely photoshopped images fooled people long before generative AI became mainstream. But recently, tools like ChatGPT, DALL-E, Midjourney, and even <a href="https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/generative-fill.html">new AI feature updates</a> to Photoshop have supercharged the issue<strong> </strong>by making it easier and cheaper to create hyperrealistic fake images, video, and text, at scale. Experts say we can expect to see more fake images like the Pentagon one, especially when they can cause political disruption.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZiRRFq">
|
||
One report by Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency, <a href="https://www.europol.europa.eu/cms/sites/default/files/documents/Europol_Innovation_Lab_Facing_Reality_Law_Enforcement_And_The_Challenge_Of_Deepfakes.pdf">predicted that as much as 90 percent</a> of content on the internet could be created or edited by AI by 2026. Already, <a href="https://www.newsguardtech.com/special-reports/newsbots-ai-generated-news-websites-proliferating/">spammy news sites seemingly generated entirely by AI</a> are popping up. The anti-misinformation platform NewsGuard started tracking such sites and found nearly three times as many as they did a few weeks prior.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lWqFXT">
|
||
“We already saw what happened in 2016 when we had the first election with a flooding of disinformation,” said Joshua Tucker, a professor and co-director of NYU’s Center for Social Media and Politics. “Now we’re going to see the other end of this equation.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="O0Aq4Y">
|
||
So what, if anything, should the tech companies that are rapidly developing AI be doing to prevent their tools from being used to bombard the internet with hyperrealistic misinformation?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-float-right">
|
||
<aside id="NMjy02">
|
||
<q>“We all have a fundamental right to establish a common objective reality”</q>
|
||
</aside>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Bw53YC">
|
||
One novel approach — that some experts say could actually work — is to use metadata, watermarks, and other technical systems to distinguish fake from real. Companies like Google, Adobe, and Microsoft are all supporting some form of labeling of AI in their products. Google, for example, <a href="https://blog.google/products/search/about-this-image-google-search/">said at its recent I/O conference that</a>, in the coming months, it will attach a written disclosure, similar to a copyright notice, underneath AI-generated results on Google Images. OpenAI’s popular image generation technology DALL-E already adds a colorful stripe watermark to the bottom of all images it creates.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lnjAig">
|
||
“We all have a fundamental right to establish a common objective reality,” said Andy Parsons, senior director of Adobe’s content authenticity initiative group. “And that starts with knowing what something is and, in cases where it makes sense, who made it or where it came from.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fQgxCV">
|
||
In order to reduce confusion between fake and real images, the content authenticity initiative group developed a tool Adobe is now using called content credentials that tracks when images are edited by AI. The company describes it as a nutrition label: information for digital content that stays with the file wherever it’s published or stored. For example, Photoshop’s latest feature, Generative Fill, uses AI to quickly create new content in an existing image, and content credentials can keep track of those changes.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gXjq84">
|
||
AI-labeling tools like Adobe’s are still in their early stages, and by no means should they be considered a silver bullet to the problem of misinformation. It’s technically possible to manipulate a watermark or metadata. Plus, not every AI generation system will want to disclose that it’s made that way. And as we’ve learned with the rise of online conspiracy theories in recent years, people will often ignore facts in favor of believing falsehoods that confirm their personal beliefs. But if implemented well — and especially if these labels are seen as more neutral than traditional social media fact-checking — AI disclosures could be one of our only hopes for navigating the increasingly blurry distinction between fake and real media online.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sLApMf">
|
||
Here is how some of these early AI markup systems could work, what the limitations are, and what users can do to navigate our confusing post-truth internet reality in the meantime.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="4UTmh8">
|
||
The devil is in the metadata
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qulTZM">
|
||
When you look at an image on social media or a search engine today, odds are you don’t know where the photo came from — let alone if it was created by AI. But underneath the hood, there’s often a form of metadata, or information associated with the digital image file, that tells you basic details, like when and where the photo was taken. Some tech companies are now starting to add specific metadata about AI to their products at the moment of creation, and they’re making that information more public in an effort to help users determine the authenticity of what they’re looking at.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="y9OifD">
|
||
Google recently said it will start marking up images made by its own new AI systems in the original image files. And when you see an image in Google Search that’s made by Google’s AI systems, it will say something like “AI-generated with Google” underneath the image. Going a step further, the company announced it’s partnering with publishers like Midjourney and stock photography site Shutterstock to let them self-tag their images as AI-generated in Google Search. This way, if you come across a Midjourney image in Google Search, it will say something like “Image self-labeled as AI-generated”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<aside id="pwxt75">
|
||
<div>
|
||
|
||
</div>
|
||
</aside>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QLy4a0">
|
||
Google Search public liaison Danny Sullivan said that this kind of AI labeling is part of a broader effort to give people more context about images they’re seeing.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4Cvpbw">
|
||
”If we can show you a helpful label, we’re going to want to do that,” said Sullivan, “but we’re also going to want to try to give you background information that we can determine independent of the label.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/HqnJCPI-nl-n88ZAV8BV1VSY3po=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24697608/AI_Label.jpg"/> <cite>Google</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
What your search result could look like if you come across an image that was generated by AI image creation platform Midjourney, which is partnering with Google to label images in search. Below the image is the disclaimer: “Image self-labeled as AI generated.”
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Nwmux7">
|
||
That’s why Google is also adding an “About this image” feature next to image search results — whether they are AI labeled or not — that you can click and see when the image was first indexed by Google, where it may have first appeared, and where else it’s been seen online. The idea is, if you searched for, say, “Pentagon explosion” and saw a bunch of images in the results, you would be able to see a fact-checked news article debunking the piece.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VxNczl">
|
||
“These tools are really designed to help people understand information literacy more and bake it into the search product itself,” said Sullivan.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QUei9X">
|
||
Other major industry players have also been working on the issue of how to label AI-generated content. In 2021, a group of major companies including Microsoft, Adobe, the BBC, and Intel created a coalition <a href="https://c2pa.org/">called the C2PA</a>. The group is tasked with helping to create an interoperable open standard for companies to share the provenance, or history of ownership, of a piece of media. C2PA created its first open standard last January, and since then, Adobe and Microsoft have released features using that standard.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3nqWrv">
|
||
For example, if you’re a photographer at a news outlet, you can mark when a specific picture was taken, who took it, and have that be digitally signed by your publisher. Later, your editor could make changes to the photo, signing it again with a seal of authenticity that it’s been verified by the C2PA standard. This way, you know that the photo was taken by a person — not generated by AI— and know who has made edits to it and when. The system uses cryptography to preserve the privacy of sensitive information.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eB7VQ0">
|
||
“Now you can read the entire lineage of the history of a piece of digital content,” said Mounir Ibrahim, EVP of public affairs and impact at Truepic, a visual authenticity app that is a member of C2PA. “The purpose of us is to help content consumers … decipher the difference between synthetic and authentic.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-float-right">
|
||
<aside id="NX9tDW">
|
||
<q>However flawed these early AI flagging and identification systems are, they’re a first step</q>
|
||
</aside>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="C4e08l">
|
||
Knowing the history and provenance of an image could potentially help users verify the legitimacy of anything from a headshot on a dating app to a breaking news photo. But for this to work, companies need to adopt the standard.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8Mq4Hb">
|
||
Right now, it’s up to companies to adopt the C2PA standard and label verified content as they wish. The organization is also discussing potentially standardizing the look of the C2PA content credential when it shows up on images, Ibrahim said. In the future, the C2PA credential could be similar to the little padlock icon next to the URL in your browser window that signifies your connection is secure. When you see the proposed C2PA icon, you would know that the image you’re seeing has had its origins verified.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2QK61O">
|
||
So far, two big C2PA members, Adobe and Microsoft, have announced tools that integrate C2PA standards into their products to mark up AI-generated content. Microsoft is labeling all AI-generated content in Bing Image Generator and Microsoft Designer, and Adobe is using C2PA standards in its new AI Firefly product’s content credentials.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="G3X5cs">
|
||
“The biggest challenge is we need more platforms to adopt this,” said Ibrahim.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Vhfxzi">
|
||
While the C2PA-style metadata labels work behind the scenes, another approach is for AI systems to add visible watermarks, as OpenAI has done with the rainbow bar at the bottom of DALL-E images. The company says it’s also working on a version of watermarking for its text app, ChatGPT. The challenge with watermarks, though, is that they can be removed. A quick Google search turns up forms of people discussing how to circumvent the imprint.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sysWzf">
|
||
Another imperfect option is technology that can detect AI-generated content after the fact. In January, <a href="https://openai.com/blog/new-ai-classifier-for-indicating-ai-written-text">OpenAI released a tool</a> that lets you cross-check a block of text to determine whether it’s likely written by AI. The problem, though, is that by OpenAI’s own assessment, the tool is not fully reliable. It correctly identified only 26 percent of AI-written texts in OpenAI’s evaluations, although it’s notably more accurate with longer than shorter text.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EBJq94">
|
||
“We don’t want any of our models to be used for misleading purposes anywhere,” said a spokesperson for OpenAI in a statement. “Our usage policies also require automated systems, including conversational AI and chatbots, to disclose to users that they are interacting with our models.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gxEcq7">
|
||
At the end of the day, even if these early AI flagging and identification systems are flawed, they’re a first step.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="YJZGy3">
|
||
What comes next
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xHrCs0">
|
||
It’s still early days for tech platforms trying to automate the identification of AI-generated content. Until they identify a dependable solution, however, fact-checkers are left manually filling in the gaps, debunking images like <a href="https://www.vox.com/technology/2023/3/30/23662292/ai-image-dalle-openai-midjourney-pope-jacket">the Pope in a puffy jacket</a> or fake audio of politicians.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="E9DIEc">
|
||
Sam Gregory, executive director of human rights and civic journalism network Witness, who works with fact-checkers largely outside of the US, said that while he thinks technical solutions to AI identification like watermarking are promising, many fact-checkers are worried about the onslaught of misinformation that could come their way with AI in the meantime. Already, many professional fact-checkers are dealing with far more content to check than humanly possible.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wu6Skt">
|
||
“Is an individual going to be blamed because they couldn’t identify an AI-generated image? Or is a fact-checker going to be the one to take the strain because they’re overwhelmed by this volume?” said Gregory. The responsibility to address AI misinformation “needs to lie on the people who are designing these tools, building these models, and distributing them,” he added.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TafUbK">
|
||
In many cases, Gregory says, it’s unclear exactly what social media platforms’ rules are about allowing AI-generated content.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-float-right">
|
||
<aside id="0cNTqb">
|
||
<q>There is an urgency to figure out these problems as AI-generated content floods the internet</q>
|
||
</aside>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="g3lLjf">
|
||
TikTok has one of the more updated policies around “synthetic media,” or media that is created or manipulated by AI. The policy, which was revised in March 2023, allows synthetic media but requires that, if it shows realistic scenes, the image must be clearly disclosed with a caption, sticker, or otherwise. The company also doesn’t allow synthetic media that contains the likeness of any private figure or anyone under 18. TikTok says it worked with outside partners like the industry nonprofit Partnership on AI for feedback on adhering to a framework for responsible AI practices.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="chuzkS">
|
||
“While we are excited by the creative opportunities that AI opens up for creators, we are also firmly committed to developing guardrails, such as policies, for its safe and transparent use,” a TikTok spokesperson said in a statement. “Like most of our industry, we continue to work with experts, monitor the progression of this technology, and evolve our approach.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kWZfWf">
|
||
But many other platforms have policies that might need some updating. <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2020/01/enforcing-against-manipulated-media/">Meta</a>, which owns Facebook and Instagram, and <a href="https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/10834785?hl=en">YouTube</a> both have general rules against manipulated media that misleads users, but those could be clarified regarding what uses are acceptable or not, according to Gregory. Meta’s fact-checking policies state that manipulated media containing misinformation is eligible for fact-checking by its third-party partners, as <a href="https://www.vishvasnews.com/english/world/fact-check-ai-generated-image-claiming-to-show-an-explosion-near-pentagon-is-fake/">it did with the fake</a> Pentagon AI explosion claims.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KACanD">
|
||
“AI is bigger than any single person, company, or country, and requires cooperation between all relevant stakeholders,” Meta said in a statement. “We are actively monitoring new trends and working to be purposeful and evidence-based in our approach to AI-generated content.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kTHWBV">
|
||
Technological solutions to help people fact-check content themselves, like AI detection systems and watermarks, couldn’t come sooner.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xRy1XP">
|
||
But NYU’s Tucker says we need to test these solutions to see whether they’re effective in changing people’s minds when they encounter misleading AI content, and what the disclosures need to look to be impactful. For example, if the disclosures that an image or video is AI-generated are too subtle, people could miss it entirely. And sometimes, labels don’t work as expected. For example, Tucker co-authored <a href="https://csmapnyu.org/research/news-credibility-labels-have-limited-average-effects-on-news-diet-quality-and-fail-to-reduce-misperceptions">a study last year</a> showing that high- or low-quality news credibility labels had limited effects on people’s news consumption habits and failed to change people’s perceptions.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xjhhXf">
|
||
Still, there’s hope that if AI disclosures are seen not as politicized fact-checks but as neutral context about the origins of an image, they could be more effective. To know whether these labels are resonating with people and changing their minds will require more research.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZUcklc">
|
||
There is an urgency to figure out these problems as AI-generated content floods the internet. In the past, tech companies had time to debate the hypothetical risks of AI misinformation because mainstream generative AI products weren’t yet out in the wild. But those threats are now very real.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KwyRbK">
|
||
These new tools that label AI-generated content, while far from perfect, could help mitigate some of that risk. Let’s hope tech companies move forward with the necessary speed to fix problems that come with AI as quickly as they’re being created.
|
||
</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Kabilesh hopes to emulate his illustrious father</strong> -</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>World Test Championship final | Australia pacer Josh Hazlewood ruled out, Neser gets call-up</strong> - Australia included fast bowler Michael Neser in the squad with Hazlewood reportedly being given furthermore time to recover and prepare for the Ashes in England.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Karim Benzema won’t return to Real Madrid next season; Hazard and Asensio also end frustrating stint with the club</strong> - The announcement comes amid reports that Benzema will play in Saudi Arabia.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh | The controversial ‘Bahubali’</strong> - Despite allegations of sexual harassment and continuing protests against him, the BJP MP stands unfazed with Rajput groups coming out in support of him</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Knotty Charmer and Jamari may fight out the finish of the D.T. Racing & Breeding LLP Juvenile Million</strong> -</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Deepak Garg is new V-C of SR University</strong> -</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Security stepped up for Governor’s visit to Ooty</strong> -</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Not prudent to allow more than two persons on two-wheelers: Centre</strong> - According to MP Elamaram Kareem, many people in the nation ride two-wheelers to get around for daily requirements</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>After decades of wait, Theni district to get first train to Chennai</strong> - Expectations of passengers soar as inaugural train service begins on June 15</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Union govt. considering equal property rights to Scheduled Tribe women: Minister informs MP</strong> - Rajya Sabha MP P. Wilson had in March this year made a representation seeking to issue notification under Hindu Succession Act to apply beneficial provisions to ST women.</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Why are people leaving Russia, who are they, and where are they going?</strong> - A trickle of Russians leaving became a stream after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine of 2022.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ukraine war: Girl, 2, killed and many injured in Dnipro after Russian strike</strong> - Rescuers found the child’s body in the wreckage of a residential building in Ukrainian city Dnipro.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Lake Maggiore boat accident: Questions remain over spy deaths</strong> - Intelligence officers from Italy and Israel are among the four people who drowned on 28 May.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Sanda Dia: Belgium reckons with verdict over black student’s hazing death</strong> - Sanda Dia died after being made to consume excessive amounts of fish oil and alcohol in 2018.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>German row over jail term for woman who attacked neo-Nazis</strong> - Lina E’s conviction has angered Germany’s far left, but the right is furious she is free pending appeal.</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A shocking number of birds are in trouble</strong> - We know better than ever how to help endangered birds, with notable conservation successes. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1944194">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>More than 400 Grail patients incorrectly told they may have cancer</strong> - Life assurance customers pause review relationship with early-detection biotech. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1944244">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>They plugged GPT-4 into Minecraft—and unearthed new potential for AI</strong> - A bot plays the video game by tapping the text generator to pick up new skills. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1944184">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Pandemic lessons: More health workers, less faxing—an Ars Frontiers recap</strong> - Amid science and tech triumphs, basic infrastructure problems hurt COVID responses. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1944284">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Google’s Android and Chrome extensions are a very sad place. Here’s why</strong> - It was a bad week for millions of people who rely on Google for apps and Chrome extensions. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1944202">link</a></p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>My dentist reminded me about my wife’s sensitive gag reflex.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
We laughed about it for a while.<br/> Then I remembered me and my wife have different dentists.
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Alpha-Studios"> /u/Alpha-Studios </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/14002bx/my_dentist_reminded_me_about_my_wifes_sensitive/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/14002bx/my_dentist_reminded_me_about_my_wifes_sensitive/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>I was offered sex with a 21 yr old today</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
In exchange, I was supposed to advertise some kind of bathroom cleaner. Of course I declined, because I am a person with high moral standards and strong willpower. Just as strong as Ajax, the super strong bathroom cleaner. Now available with scented lemon or vanilla.
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/kickypie"> /u/kickypie </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1403fni/i_was_offered_sex_with_a_21_yr_old_today/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1403fni/i_was_offered_sex_with_a_21_yr_old_today/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>I told my wife that I’m going to arrange the herbs in alphabetical order from now on.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Her: How would you find the time?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Me: Easy. It’ll be right next to the sage.
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/porichoygupto"> /u/porichoygupto </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/14006l2/i_told_my_wife_that_im_going_to_arrange_the_herbs/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/14006l2/i_told_my_wife_that_im_going_to_arrange_the_herbs/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Seriously? Gay jokes during Pride Month?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Come on guys.
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Gingi0"> /u/Gingi0 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13zcxna/seriously_gay_jokes_during_pride_month/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13zcxna/seriously_gay_jokes_during_pride_month/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Woman talking to a police officer.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Woman: Can you arrest me for calling you a filthy name?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Police Officer: “Yes”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Woman: Can you arrest me for thinking something.?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Police Officer: “No”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Woman: Well, I think you’re a cunt.
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Buddy2269"> /u/Buddy2269 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13zsjal/woman_talking_to_a_police_officer/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13zsjal/woman_talking_to_a_police_officer/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
|
||
|
||
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