Big Picture
Enabling Better Information Futures
Our work focuses on three key areas, each addressing one or more root causes of the global information crisis (the "Infocrisis").
Empowering People with Knowledge
Modern information services like web search and social media prioritize consumption over comprehension, inundating us with junk information that harms our well-being.
We’re developing services that automatically provide high-quality knowledge as you search, use social media, or otherwise consume information.
Our goal is to help people form informed opinions based on the best available public knowledge, while supporting diversity of thought and fostering critical thinking. By offering a range of perspectives and verified information, we aim to enhance understanding and enable more nuanced discussions, ultimately contributing to a more informed and engaged society.
Empowering Knowledge Workers with Tools
The internet has made publishing information cheap but hasn’t reduced the costs of verifying and producing high-quality knowledge. This disparity allows low-quality, unverified information to spread quickly, contributing to the Infocrisis and making it hard to discern accurate information.
To address this, we’re developing tools that help knowledge workers use existing knowledge more effectively and create new, high-quality knowledge with less effort. By leveraging advanced AI and collaboration technologies, we can streamline research, reduce duplication of effort, and enhance outcome quality. This ensures that critical knowledge is accessible and actionable for academics, professionals, and the public, strengthening the information ecosystem.
Building Knowledge-Friendly Business Models
Business models that commodify attention and personal data drive the Infocrisis by incentivizing sensationalist, misleading, or polarizing content to maximize engagement. This pursuit of attention spreads disinformation and misinformation, prioritizing clicks over accuracy. Additionally, the monetization of personal data erodes privacy, creating echo chambers and filter bubbles, which fragment public understanding and increase societal divisions.
We’re designing business models inspired by successful private-to-public models that developed large-scale infrastructure, such as railway systems, the interstate highway system, and internet infrastructure. These models used significant private investment alongside public funding and regulation to create foundational services that spurred growth and innovation. By applying similar principles, we aim to develop scalable, sustainable solutions for contemporary challenges in information dissemination, digital security, and public trust.
Frequently Asked Questions
Isn't this just fact checking?
We borrow some elements from fact checking (and other methods for validating information and creating knowledge.) The key improvements we're adding are personalization and scale. Personalization, in that we're applying these methods to what you're consuming when and where you're consuming it. Scale in that we're trying to cover a large portion of important topics. This is in contrast to traditional fact-checking, which often focuses on specific claims after they’ve already been widely disseminated. Our approach aims to provide real-time verification and context, proactively helping users navigate information as they encounter it, thereby reducing the spread of misinformation before it can take root.
Do people really want to be well-informed?
We estimate that at least 50% of adults want to be better informed, based on research such as Horrigan, John B. “How People Approach Facts and Information.” Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech (blog), September 11, 2017. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2017/09/11/how-people-approach-facts-and-information/
Who are you to say what "high-quality knowledge" is?
We’re ordinary people standing on the shoulders of giants. We’re developing selection criteria based on time-tested methods such as the scientific method, journalistic principles, and peer review. Our goal is to ensure the reliability and integrity of the information we share.
We will publish these selection criteria and revise them based on expert feedback. Additionally, we will provide systems to facilitate the validation of published information against these criteria, ensuring transparency and fostering trust in our processes.
Why isn't my question on this list?
Feel free to ask and we'll do our best to answer. Please leave a comment at the bottom of this page.