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It’s terrifyingly easy for reporters to exploit Google’s News algorithms


I’ve spent the last eight months turning Google News into my personal playground. I manipulated the algorithm and made it surface my stories whether they were relevant to specific topics or not. This is a big problem. I’m a regular reporter — a writer. I have no programming skills or formal education in computer science. Google’s arguably the most technologically-advanced AI company in Silicon Valley. It also happens to be worth more than two trillion dollars. Google News reaches almost 300 million users. And I was able to game its algorithms by changing a single word on a web page.…

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