Facts, it seems, aren’t what they used to be.
The 20th century American comedian Groucho Marx famously said: “Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them… well, I have others.” It is a sentiment that is said to predate him. But if we jump forward to the 2020s, we might be forgiven for reinterpreting the phrase to be about "facts". It seems that facts are no longer seen as sacrosanct, nor worth preserving as a principle.
Earlier this month, Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of tech giant Meta that owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, among others, said his company is doing away with fact checkers for Facebook and moving to the model of "community notes" used by fellow tech owner Elon Musk at X, formerly Twitter.
I don’t need to rehash the discussions from recent years about how social media has been warped by fake news, misinformation and disinformation. Nor the debates about whether we are now in a post-truth era. Even less about how the echo chambers created by algorithms hungry for engagement drive tribalism – not just online but offline too, and society fracturing into seemingly unbridgeable tribes.
It feels unnecessary to pose the question in a newspaper column, but isn’t it foundational that we accept that some things are not conjecture?
The irony of writing an opinion piece about facts is not lost on me, but when there are no shared facts, or newsworthy reliable sources, what do we do? Do we end up living in a real-world equivalent of shouty people who tell us something is true just because they received a WhatsApp message? Are we to assume that any kind of information we receive is a fact?
Every wave of scientific discovery is founded on facts. So I only pick the Renaissance and Enlightenment to contrast with the recent western announcements that facts are no longer the "in" thing.
There are consequences to such developments. Some of these are of a much more long-term nature and that should concern us all.
It is namely this. If digital inputs that are being increasingly used to develop AI are free of facts, what will that do to the knowledge created, and to its proliferation into every part of our knowledge and societal ecosystems?
If we dilute all the knowledge in the world, a lot will be undone, and the price will be paid by coming generations
The real-world impact of AI’s biases are well documented: everything from wrongful jail convictions based on poor AI facial recognition, to rejections from job interviews because the AI recruiter deems you don’t match a pre-existing notion of someone who can do a particular job satisfactorily.
Artificial intelligence is driving a change in the way knowledge is processed, produced and used in the world around us. It is widely acknowledged that it contains biases – after all its inputs originate from an already biased world. And those biases are exacerbated by the biases of the people building the models, rules and applications.
But what happens if the real world is polluted with information that is not fact? Already we’re not able to deal with the biases that exist in the world. But we are entering a time where the guardrails on facts are being taken down at the very moment that the knowledge being fed into these systems is informing young people and defining their views and beliefs. This could very likely hold true for generations. It is one reason why the flippancy with which facts are treated should be seen as deeply dangerous.
There’s an argument for "offline" real world knowledge, such as that found in books. But that can't spread at the same speed as AI, nor have the reach and implications across the systems that run the world.
I may recall checking encyclopaedias to complete my homework, but for younger people, born surrounded by constant internet and content, access to high quality "knowledge" has been replaced by the need to gather as much information as possible, from what can often be dubious websites.
When internet access and in particular social media emerged, the great hope was that it would be a means to democratise access to knowledge, enable being heard, and add to knowledge from new sources. This democratisation was subverted by algorithms and the opinions which caught their attention and turned those opinions into what are often taken to be facts.
If at this moment we dilute all the knowledge in the world, that has taken centuries to accumulate, a lot will be undone, and the price will be paid by coming generations. Facts matter. Otherwise what will the knowledge legacy be that we leave for our children and grandchildren?
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
SPECS
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Brief scores:
Juventus 3
Dybala 6', Bonucci 17', Ronaldo 63'
Frosinone 0
FIXTURES
Monday, January 28
Iran v Japan, Hazza bin Zayed Stadium (6pm)
Tuesday, January 29
UAEv Qatar, Mohamed Bin Zayed Stadium (6pm)
Friday, February 1
Final, Zayed Sports City Stadium (6pm)
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Islamophobia definition
A widely accepted definition was made by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims in 2019: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” It further defines it as “inciting hatred or violence against Muslims”.
Martin Sabbagh profile
Job: CEO JCDecaux Middle East
In the role: Since January 2015
Lives: In the UAE
Background: M&A, investment banking
Studied: Corporate finance
The%20specs
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Squads
Pakistan: Sarfaraz Ahmed (c), Babar Azam (vc), Abid Ali, Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Sohail, Mohammad Hasnain, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Shadab Khan, Usman Shinwari, Wahab Riaz
Sri Lanka: Lahiru Thirimanne (c), Danushka Gunathilaka, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Avishka Fernando, Oshada Fernando, Shehan Jayasuriya, Dasun Shanaka, Minod Bhanuka, Angelo Perera, Wanindu Hasaranga, Lakshan Sandakan, Nuwan Pradeep, Isuru Udana, Kasun Rajitha, Lahiru Kumara
The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins
Read part one: how cars came to the UAE
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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The alternatives
• Founded in 2014, Telr is a payment aggregator and gateway with an office in Silicon Oasis. It’s e-commerce entry plan costs Dh349 monthly (plus VAT). QR codes direct customers to an online payment page and merchants can generate payments through messaging apps.
• Business Bay’s Pallapay claims 40,000-plus active merchants who can invoice customers and receive payment by card. Fees range from 1.99 per cent plus Dh1 per transaction depending on payment method and location, such as online or via UAE mobile.
• Tap started in May 2013 in Kuwait, allowing Middle East businesses to bill, accept, receive and make payments online “easier, faster and smoother” via goSell and goCollect. It supports more than 10,000 merchants. Monthly fees range from US$65-100, plus card charges of 2.75-3.75 per cent and Dh1.2 per sale.
• 2checkout’s “all-in-one payment gateway and merchant account” accepts payments in 200-plus markets for 2.4-3.9 per cent, plus a Dh1.2-Dh1.8 currency conversion charge. The US provider processes online shop and mobile transactions and has 17,000-plus active digital commerce users.
• PayPal is probably the best-known online goods payment method - usually used for eBay purchases - but can be used to receive funds, providing everyone’s signed up. Costs from 2.9 per cent plus Dh1.2 per transaction.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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SPECS
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Coming soon
Torno Subito by Massimo Bottura
When the W Dubai – The Palm hotel opens at the end of this year, one of the highlights will be Massimo Bottura’s new restaurant, Torno Subito, which promises “to take guests on a journey back to 1960s Italy”. It is the three Michelinstarred chef’s first venture in Dubai and should be every bit as ambitious as you would expect from the man whose restaurant in Italy, Osteria Francescana, was crowned number one in this year’s list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
Akira Back Dubai
Another exciting opening at the W Dubai – The Palm hotel is South Korean chef Akira Back’s new restaurant, which will continue to showcase some of the finest Asian food in the world. Back, whose Seoul restaurant, Dosa, won a Michelin star last year, describes his menu as, “an innovative Japanese cuisine prepared with a Korean accent”.
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
The highly experimental chef, whose dishes are as much about spectacle as taste, opens his first restaurant in Dubai next year. Housed at The Royal Atlantis Resort & Residences, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal will feature contemporary twists on recipes that date back to the 1300s, including goats’ milk cheesecake. Always remember with a Blumenthal dish: nothing is quite as it seems.
'C'mon C'mon'
Director:Mike Mills
Stars:Joaquin Phoenix, Gaby Hoffmann, Woody Norman
Rating: 4/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
