The Impact of Populism and Disinformation on Modern Society.
In today’s world, populism and disinformation have become a serious problem. We live in an age of information overload, where an uncritical attitude toward incoming information leads to far-reaching consequences. Enticing advertising, charismatic leaders, and manipulative technologies mislead people. False data creates false beliefs, which in turn lead to misguided actions and the pursuit of false goals. This not only wastes valuable time, but often robs us of the opportunity to correct mistakes.
Politicians, top managers, mass media, and internet channels often provide flashy but unreliable information. In the pursuit of ratings, likes, and monetization, deception has become practically the norm. Most people lack sufficient skills to critically evaluate information, which makes them vulnerable to populism and lies.
Proposed solution: AI-based truthfulness rating.
I propose an innovative solution to combat disinformation — a truthfulness rating system, based on artificial intelligence. Instead of trying to teach every individual reflection and ‘fact-checking’ skills—which is almost impossible on a societal scale—I propose a tool that will help people automatically assess the reliability of the information they receive.
How does it work?
The system should use AI for analyzing open data and data obtained from reliable sources: promises, statements, messages, and their actual fulfillment. For example, if a source promised improvements but the situation worsened in reality, this would be reflected in their rating.
A simple system of symbols should be used for clarity:
- “+++”: The source or person is always truthful. Their information is verified and corresponds to reality.
- “- — -“: The source intentionally deceives. Their statements and actions are the opposite of reality.
- “++”, “+”, “-“, “- -“: Intermediate values reflecting varying degrees of truthfulness or distortion of information.
Accessibility and localization.
I plan to develop a mobile application that every user will be able to install on their smartphone or other gadget. When viewing news or videos on popular platforms such as YouTube, Telegram, TikTok, WhatsApp, Google, and others, the truthfulness rating of the source or specific individual will be displayed automatically.
The information in the application will be localized to the user’s region and interests, ensuring maximum relevance. In addition, users will be able to check the rating of any source available in the database at any time, and, if desired, view the information on which the rating was assigned with links to the original sources.
Application in business and the public sector.
A similar approach can be applied to assess the effectiveness of managers and employees in business or state-owned companies. Instead of traditional KPIs, motivation can be linked to the truthfulness rating:
- Recording promises and tasks: records are kept of given promises and accepted tasks.
- Performance assessment: actual fulfillment of these promises and tasks is monitored.
- Assigning a rating: based on the comparison of what was promised and what was accomplished, a truthfulness and efficiency rating is assigned.
Investment appeal and expected effect.
Developing an assessment methodology and creating the appropriate software will require significant investment. However, we are convinced that with sufficient adoption, this system will have a tremendous impact on society. It will help to:
- Reduce the influence of populism and lies: People will be able to make more informed decisions based on reliable information.
- Increase the level of trust: Transparency in truthfulness assessments will contribute to creating a more honest information environment.
- Improve management quality: The introduction of a truthfulness rating in business and the public sector will promote honesty and responsibility.
This ambitious project has the potential to change the way information is consumed and decisions are made on a global scale, becoming a kind of “game changer«.
And what do you think, how useful can such a solution be?
