Facebook’s latest idea is news articles that are just bullet points and sound bites

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During a Facebook meeting that featured pre-recorded messages from company executives and led by Mark Zuckerberg, it was mentioned that the company is working on AI that will break the news down into bullet points and read it to you.

The news comes from Buzzfeed News, which managed to obtain audio of the meeting that was broadcast to thousands of employees. While the meeting featured various things, including people calling 2020 a “trying year,” one highlight was the company’s push towards more AI and how it could be used.

In addition to moderation, Facebook also apparently sees AI as a way to deliver news to users. Called TLDR (too long, didn’t read), the tech would be used to break down news articles into easily-digestible bullet points that a user could read or listen to.

Obviously, for any normal human being, this isn’t a great solution for news, as there can be intricacies that can’t be broken down into bullet points, but what do I know, I just write drivel on the internet.

Besides that, do we really trust AI to do this correctly and not screw it up? Misinformation is a huge problem on the platform and with something like this, Facebook could put itself directly into the driver’s seat. Not to mention the bias that can come with improperly trained AI.

While concise news bits could be handy for certain things, it’s yet another way to simplify everything in the world, and as we’ve learned in 2020, that isn’t always easy or right to do.

What do you think? How do you feel about news being delivered this way? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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