{"id":369298,"date":"2021-11-18T22:20:27","date_gmt":"2021-11-18T19:20:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/google-news-probably-thinks-i-cover-spiderman-because-ai-is-dumb\/"},"modified":"2021-11-18T22:20:27","modified_gmt":"2021-11-18T19:20:27","slug":"google-news-probably-thinks-i-cover-spiderman-because-ai-is-dumb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/google-news-probably-thinks-i-cover-spiderman-because-ai-is-dumb\/","title":{"rendered":"#Google News probably thinks I cover Spiderman because AI is dumb"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a389b1248fc4\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a389b1248fc4\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/google-news-probably-thinks-i-cover-spiderman-because-ai-is-dumb\/#How_it_started\" >How it started<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/google-news-probably-thinks-i-cover-spiderman-because-ai-is-dumb\/#How_its_going\" >How it\u2019s going<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/google-news-probably-thinks-i-cover-spiderman-because-ai-is-dumb\/#The_LGBTQiest_journalist_on_the_planet\" >The LGBTQ+iest journalist on the planet<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;<strong>#Google <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> probably thinks I cover Spiderman because AI is dumb<\/strong>&#8221;<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/img-cdn.tnwcdn.com\/image?fit=796%2C417&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn0.tnwcdn.com%2Fwp-content%2Fblogs.dir%2F1%2Ffiles%2F2021%2F11%2Frainbow_news.jpg&amp;signature=8aafedc4d6e26b552a6fa5f5fcd975d1\" \/><\/p>\n<div><span>Google News holds a special place in the world of journalism. <\/span><span>When multiple <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">media<\/a> outlets report on the same topic in a short amount of time, the articles that make it to the main News page are seen by the most people. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>It\u2019s no different than any other media industry. If you\u2019re a musician, you want your song to show up on Spotify\u2019s main page. If you\u2019re in a comedy movie, you want it to be listed first in the \u201ccomedy\u201d section on Netflix.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>That\u2019s why one of my crowning achievements as a journalist was convincing the Google News algorithm I was the queerest artificial intelligence reporter in the world.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"How_it_started\"><\/span><span>How it started<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Back in June I published this article explaining how my TNW author profile was influencing the number of my articles that showed up in Google News if you did an in-<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a> search for \u201cartificial intelligence queer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At the time, it was relevant because it was Pride month and a lot of people were covering how AI technologies impact the queer community.<\/p>\n<p>When I casually searched for \u201cartificial intelligence queer\u201d to see what my peers were writing on the topic, I was astounded to find that a large portion \u2013 about 1\/3 \u2013 of what Google News returned was my work. And most of those articles had nothing to do with LGBTQ+ issues at all.<\/p>\n<p>As I wrote then, we couldn\u2019t have <i>bought<\/i> that kind of search domination. Had nobody else written about LGBTQ+ and AI all month?\u00a0No, it was June so there were literally dozens of articles on the subject.<\/p>\n<p>When I went to the Google Search site and performed the same query it produced different results. In fact, even if I clicked on the \u201cnews\u201d tab from the main Search page, it still didn\u2019t show the same ratio of one of my articles for every two from someone else.<\/p>\n<p>The Google News interface, for whatever reason, seemingly draws information from my TNW author profile and uses it to influence query results.<\/p>\n<p>Apparently there aren\u2019t a lot of journalists who use the word \u201cqueer\u201d in their indexed author page.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"How_its_going\"><\/span>How it\u2019s going<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Heavy is the head that wears the crown and, to be honest with you, it can be quite taxing to be queer. I\u2019d rather not be <i>the queerest<\/i><span> AI journo on the planet for more than a few weeks. So, a while back, I changed my author profile.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>It used to say I covered \u201cqueer stuff,\u201d because I thought that was kind of funny. I changed it to say I covered \u201cLGTBTQ+ issues.\u201d It seems more professional.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>And, voila! Like magic, my reign was over. I searched for \u201cartificial intelligence queer\u201d on Google News and it returned a smaller number of my articles. And all of them were about being \u201cqueer\u201d in STEM. Problem solved! Hooray? <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>No, of course not.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Admittedly, I\u2019m no longer<em> the queerest AI journo in the world<\/em>. But hear me out because, as far as Google News is concerned <\/span><i>now<\/i><span>, my work on the \u201cartificial intelligence LGBTQ+ issues\u201d beat is important enough to take up even more of the search results than my work as a \u201cqueer\u201d AI journalist.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Here we go again:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>By changing my TNW author profile to say I covered \u201cLGBTQ+ issues,\u201d it turns out I was using a term that even <em>fewer<\/em><\/span><span>\u00a0journalists use in their profiles. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>If you search for \u201cartificial intelligence LGBTQ+ issues\u201d in Google News, about <\/span><i>two-<\/i><span>thirds of the articles in the search results are mine as of the time of this article\u2019s publishing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>If I can\u2019t escape my destiny as an ambassador between the queer AI journalist community and the Google News algorithm, I must embrace it.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_LGBTQiest_journalist_on_the_planet\"><\/span>The LGBTQ+iest journalist on the planet<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span>And with great power comes great responsibility. Which is why I changed my TNW author profile to say I cover \u201cSpiderman\u201d today. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>It could take a few days for the changes to reflect in Google indexes, but it\u2019ll be worth the wait in my opinion. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>If Google News is going to associate my articles with whatever I put in my author profile, I\u2019m going to manifest a world where my name and Spiderman are synonymous. Why not?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The moral to this story is that algorithms are dumb. No human curator would have made the same mistakes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>And when algorithms deal with people, those mistakes can be harmful. Who knows how many journalists who wrote about <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/technology\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"4\" title=\"Technology\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">technology<\/a> for Pride this year lost page views because Google News decided to surface my articles about policy and physics instead of their relevant pieces? <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Today, I\u2019m able to exploit the algorithm for kicks. I can get my stories to show up under specific search queries in the Google News interface just by changing my author profile. It\u2019s kind of funny.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>But what if someone decides to silence queer journalism tomorrow by exploiting the algorithm in such a way that searching for news on LGBTQ+ issues, using any query string, would result in mostly Breitbart or Infowars articles surfacing? There\u2019s nothing funny about that.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>Related: Why can\u2019t Google\u2019s algorithms find any good news for queer people?<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more like this article, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/technology\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Technology category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/news\/google-news-thinks-i-cover-spiderman-because-algorithms-dumb\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;#Google News probably thinks I cover Spiderman because AI is dumb&#8221; Google News holds a special place in the world of journalism. When multiple media outlets report on the same topic in a short amount of time, the articles that make it to the main News page are seen by the most people. It\u2019s no&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":369299,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/img-cdn.tnwcdn.com\/image\/neural?filter_last=1&fit=1280,640&url=https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2021\/11\/rainbow_news.jpg&signature=226dcdbc25aa0f59c20b1668eff081d3","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-369298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}