Improve the News

News shapes our views of the world and colors our opinions. Spending too much time in an information bubble (reading information from the same sources) gives us an incomplete picture of the complexities of an issue. Worse, the information may be used to manipulate our opinions.

I was recently listening to one of my favorite podcasts, People I (Mostly) Admire. The guest was Max Tegmark, an M.I.T. cosmologist, physicist, and machine-learning expert. The two-part conversation was fascinating. One of Tegmark's projects is a news aggregator called "Improve the News". Improve the News pulls news from across the internet and using Artificial Intelligence lets you filter your view (with easy-to-use sliders). The two main sliders are left vs. right (liberal vs. conservative) and establishment vs. anti-establishment. There are many others filters to choose from. I prefer the split-screen that allows you to view both extremes at once.

It is fascinating to see how the right vs. left approach the same issue. As we are in the throes of the holiday season, Improve the News is a tool for us to appreciate what others are reading and offers the promise of deeper discussions with those who hold differing opinions.