According to an internal news report, Facebook is developing a news-summarizing AI called “TL;DR.” Named after the acronym “Too Long, Didn’t Read,” TL;DR will reportedly provide bullet-point summaries of news articles so that users do not need to read them. The tool also aims to leverage AI to provide chat-bot support to clarify terms, provide audio narration of articles, and even a vocal assistant to answer questions.

Some Concerns

Facebook is already considered a major source of misinformation, which is in large part driven by their algorithms. Critics of TL;DR have raised questions like: which sources of news will be prioritized? How will TL;DR summarize key pieces of news, without biasing the reader towards certain facts? The AI will also need to be carefully designed not to take quotes out of context and further contribute to the spread of misinformation.

Our Opinion

Facebook + News + AI — what could go wrong? The answer: so much. This tweet by Audrey Cooper captures it well:

You can count on Hold The Code to be watching you, watching us, Mark Zuckerberg.