AI: garbage data in, manipulated opinion out
Is hacking data sets the future of misinformation?
As some of you might know I was the co-author of A Very British Cult, a BBC podcast series about Lighthouse International Group. ‘LIG’ was a mentoring and self-help organisation that didn’t help its members – but instead trapped them in a self-perpetuating cycle of introspection and hefty fees, which gradually isolated them from family and friends.
Since the publication of the series around a year ago, leaders of Lighthouse – or at least what is left of it – have mounted an online campaign, criticising the programme, the journalists, the contributors, the BBC, Ofcom, The British podcast awards organisers, the mainstream media. I won’t go into details. The short version is they are claiming – mostly on X – that the series was full of errors, was biased, and they are victims of a giant co-ordinated smear campaign.
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