Latest news with #Logically
Spectator
6 days ago
- Business
- Spectator
The decline of the fact checkers is something to celebrate
For some years now, one of the greatest worries among a certain coterie has been that of 'misinformation'. This is the idea that the masses, left to their own devices – figuratively and literally – are unable to discern what is true and what is false. This is what has prompted the establishment of such gatekeeping bodies as BBC Verify, institutions that presume to protect the general public from the vast tides of online nonsense. The news that Britain's biggest fact-checking company, Logically, has gone into administration, will be a blow to those who think we need such bodies. Former employees of the company blame its demise on strategic errors, although this development has happened at a time when the industry has been in retreat. Under a bullish second Donald Trump administration, the tech giants Google, Meta and X have been scaling back fact-checking on their platforms. The company Logically had ostensibly noble intentions upon its creation in 2016. According to its founder, Lyric Jain, its goal was 'tackling harmful and manipulative content and scale' and 'bringing truth to the digital world, and making it a safer place for everyone everywhere'. The digital revolution, encompassing a decline in mainstream news consumption and reliance, has indeed resulted in an overabundance of unaccredited sources of information. But the year of Logically's foundation is telling, and fundamental to understanding the reason why fact-checkers believe themselves to be so important. 2016 was the year of populist insurrection, of the Brexit referendum in the UK and the election that saw Trump voted US president for the first time. Both events were shocks for the elites in each country, and on both sides of the Atlantic a considerable section of the overclass reacted less than rationally or gracefully to such a display of impudence. They responded by deprecating ordinary people as 'deplorables', or as 'low-information' morons and racists easily swayed by the tabloid newspapers or whatever junk appeared on their newsfeeds. Thus was born the myth of 'misinformation'. In this respect, the whole philosophy of 'fact-checking' against 'misinformation' was a reflection of some benevolent desire to educate, inform and assist the general public. If it had been such an enterprise, it would have appeared at the earliest in the 1990s, with the emergence of the internet, or at the latest in the late-2000s, after the first profusion of smartphones. No, fact-checking has always been a political undertaking, and a reactionary one at that. It was a reaction by a sour and resentful overclass that in 2016 didn't get its own way for once. It's been a reaction from an elite in America which failed to learn the lessons of that year, and which continued to live in aloof and insensitive oblivion until it lost once again last November. While many in Britain have taken stock of the actual, non-imagined, non-fake reasons that have been at the root of the populist convulsions of the past decade – globalisation, deindustrialisation, immigration – there remain those who stick to the stale narrative that ordinary people are just stupid. After Reform UK's local election gains in April, Times columnist Emma Duncan concluded that this support is 'fuelled less by people's experiences than by lies.' It's this elitist scorn, that the hoi polloi are suggestible and pliable, that has also driven the constant hounding of GB News. Yet often it's not the masses who need to 'educate themselves', but the graduate class themselves. It was the global elites and establishments who fell prey to the whole transgender cult, not your average Republican or Reform UK voter, much in the same way that generations back it was the well-educated bien pensants who became the biggest dupes of Stalin. As Luke Conway wrote in Liberal Bullies, his book of last year, our elite obsession with the 'misinformation' of others betrays its own greed for power: 'One of the defining elements of authoritarian regimes, both past and present, both right-wing and left-wing, is that they try to control information'. Indeed, it's this controlling of information, not so much the propagation of wrong information, that causes popular unrest. It was a central factor to causing last summer's unrest, when the authorities withheld key facts about the background of the Southport killer. The notion of 'misinformation' is itself built on an error. There is no such thing as wholly objective facts or given truths when it comes to human affairs. Knowledge is always and forever a contested area and common truths are based on consensus. Fact-checkers are no-more omniscient, infallible or God-like than you or me. 'Fake news' is just a 21st-century way of saying people tell lies. We no more need 'fact-checkers' than we do the entire concept of 'misinformation'. What we need is more dialogue and less people presuming to know what is right for you and me.
Time of India
6 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
UK's largest fact-checking firm, with India-born founder, folds up
Lyric Jain, Founder & CEO, Logically. Logically, Britain's largest fact-checking company started by an India-born entrepreneur that once had assignments from Indian, UK and US govts as well as social media giants, has gone into 'administration' -- a legal process where a debt-defaulting firm seeks court protection to restructure and avoid liquidation. One of the key reasons why Logically, founded by Lyric Jain in 2017, folded up was social media giants moving away from AI-enabled fact checking. Meta and TikTok did not renew their contracts this year. Pressure on social media giants to fact-check has eased since US President Donald Trump took charge the second time early this year. Logically's assets have been transferred to another company called Kreatur as part of the 'administration' process. Jain had founded Logically with backing from private investors. He had moved to the UK from Mysore at age 12. The company's clients included US federal agencies, India's Election Commission, Mumbai police, Karnataka, J&K and Assam govts. It also worked for Britain's counter-disinformation unit during the pandemic and on debunking disinformation ahead of 2020 US elections. Having won lucrative fact-checking contracts with TikTok and Meta earlier, Logically once boasted over 100 staff in the UK, India and US. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like An engineer reveals: One simple trick to get internet without a subscription Techno Mag Learn More Undo 'The cost of doing fact-checking was getting increasingly expensive. When TikTok's contract came up for renewal they offered a paltry amount not sufficient for running the technology. So, they went their separate ways. Meta did not renew because it was moving towards community-led fact checkers,' a source close to Logically told TOI. Around the same time, the firm lost certification from International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), allegedly because the industry body does not allow fact-checkers to work for govts. UK's The Times newspaper claimed Logically being hired by Karnataka govt in early 2024 to set up a fact-checking unit to parse misinformation ahead of the Lok Sabha elections last summer led to the firm losing its certification. However, a source contested that version. 'Karnataka govt did a proof of concept contract with Logically but nothing has happened ever since. IFCN does not have a monopoly on fact-checking,' the source said. The same source disputed claims about Logically 'losing' certification. 'We didn't renew it. Fact-checking with platforms was not an attractive business. Logically was gradually winding up that side of business to focus on corporate and govt customers for information advantage and providing competitive intelligence,' the source said. A spokesperson for Kreatur, to which Logically's assets have been channelled, confirmed the move. 'Kreatur Ltd has acquired Logically's core technology, brand, and key assets as part of a pre-pack administration process. The transaction ensures continuity for all customers and has preserved over 50 full-time roles,' the spokesperson said.
Times
04-07-2025
- Business
- Times
Britain's biggest fact-checking company goes into administration
Britain's biggest fact-checking company has gone into administration, The Times has learnt. Logically was born in the wake of the 2016 United States presidential election and the Brexit referendum. It once boasted 200 employees in the UK, India and America. Its founder, Lyric Jain, a Cambridge engineering graduate, said he was also motivated by the death of his paternal grandmother in India who died after being persuaded to abandon chemotherapy treatment in favour of a 'special juice'. He said his goal was 'tackling harmful and manipulative content at speed and scale' and 'bringing truth to the digital world, and making it a safer place for everyone everywhere'. Jain hails from a wealthy Indian family, whose home is a mansion in Staffordshire that once belonged to Admiral Sir John Jervis, a naval commander in the 18th century. The fact-checking industry is facing a backlash driven by President Trump's second administration, but former employees of Logically blame its demise on what they claim were strategic errors from the company's leadership. Logically did fact-checking for Meta and TikTok under the Logically Facts brand and also developed an AI software product that analysed social media posts for disinformation. Former staff point to a decision by the company to work for the controversial fact-checking unit of the Indian state government of Karnataka as a crucial misstep. The unit was criticised by the Editors Guild of India and other organisations who argued the system could be used to suppress dissent and free speech and threaten independent journalism. That contract led to the loss of its certification from International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), an industry body, which does not allow fact-checkers to be employed by state entities or political parties. Around that time Logically lost the Meta and TikTok contracts which were worth millions of pounds in revenue. Sources close to Logically suggest the loss of the social media contracts was for commercial reasons rather than certification. Logically also worked for the British government's Counter-Disinformation Unit during the Covid pandemic, attracting some controversy from free speech supporters. • Disinformation unit 'tried to stifle Covid lockdown critics' Angie Drobnic Holan, director of the IFCN, said of the Indian contract: 'They lost their certification in part because of that and also concerns about overall transparency. 'It wasn't clear what work was journalistic and what work was … private, for lack of a better word. We knew that they were doing some work advising governments, but it wasn't very clear what the nature of that work was or how it impacted their fact-checking operation. 'There was no allegation that they were doing anything wrong. But our code is about meeting very high standards.' Former staff said the company was keen to drop human-driven fact-checking in favour of an AI software product called Logically Intelligence. The product was hampered when social media companies like X cut off access to their data. Tech giants including Google, Meta and X have dropped or scaled back fact-checking services in recent month. After Trump's election, Meta scrapped its external fact-checkers on Facebook, Instagram and Threads, replacing them with a 'crowd-sourced' system like the one pioneered on social media site announced this week that AI would be writing fact-checking notes on its crowd-sourced system called Community Notes. Last week Google dropped a system called ClaimReview that allowed fact-checkers to promote accurate information on search Morris, chief executive of Full Fact, a British fact-checking charity, said: 'Google's decision to deprioritise fact-checks will make it harder for users to access accurate information designed to help them make informed choices. It's a disappointing decision from a company that has until very recently been a global fact-checking champion.'Google said the change was a 'minor clean-up' which 'affected a very small percentage of results'. Logically's assets have been transferred to another company called Kreatur under a pre-pack administration process. The main shareholder and director of Kreatur, Ashwin Kumaraswamy, is a former director and the original investor in Logically.A Kreatur spokesperson said: 'Kreatur Ltd has acquired Logically's core technology, brand and key assets as part of a pre-pack administration process. The transaction ensures continuity for all customers and preserves over 40 full-time roles.' Kumaraswamy was approached for comment.
Tom's Guide
11-06-2025
- Tom's Guide
Forget ChatGPT — these are my four favorite AI research tools
The huge sea of AI tools now available to us can do some incredible things. But for me, their best use is as an infinite guide to the world around us. Whether it is a deep research project or a quick answer to a question, AI has become the ultimate research tool. This is what I use AI for every single day, both with answering my simplest of questions and helping me understand the complex. That said, some tools just do a better job at this. Out of all the options out there right now, these are my four favorite AI research tools. Yes, we know — you're tired of hearing about chatbots… but let's talk about them some more. They are the bread-and-butter of AI tools, and when it comes to research, they absolutely thrive. While you can use any of the big names like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Deepseek, my favorite for research right now is Claude. The Anthropic-owned chatbot saw a huge upgrade with its Claude 4 models and thrives in its understanding of complicated subjects. I use Claude for everything from a quick answer to a simple question all the way through to a massive deep dive into complicated concepts and tricky-to-understand processes. Claude also offers pre-built prompts to help you learn about new topics, inputting phrases automatically for you to get the best answer. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. For those who haven't used Perplexity before, the best way to describe it is as an AI-powered Google. It's the combination of a search engine and an AI chatbot. Ask it questions, and it will search the internet, using the answers of Reddit forums, research papers, and news articles to answer whatever question you might have in immense detail. While it has some flaws, specifically around the lack of ability to do things like load maps or complete purchases, I have found that it is a better option than Google in a number of situations, especially when you want a quick and detailed answer to a complicated question. Often times, Perplexity will answer a string of questions you might have to ask Google one after the other, all in one search. I recently covered Logically, saying it was like a mix of Perplexity, NotebookLM, and ChatGPT put together. So, in theory, does that mean you don't need any of the above tools? Well, no. While Logically offers the functions of all three, it doesn't do it as well as any of them. Instead, Logically consolidates all of these features into one place, offering a very specific experience. While anyone can find use in this, whether it's for school, work, or just gathering important information, it is intended for a very focused kind of research. This isn't the tool to go for when you're doing a quick dive into a topic or just want to ask a couple of questions. Instead, Logically is what you pull out when you have a 10,000-word essay or a year-long project to keep track of. Part of the Google Gemini family, NotebookLM is a fantastic research tool. Its main use is in summarization. Give it incredibly long documents, YouTube videos, news articles, or just about any kind of source of information, and NotebookLM will summarize it, picking out key points and offering study guides, timelines, and FAQs on the information you've provided. This doesn't have to just be one source of information. You can set up projects with multiple sources of information. One of the more unique features of Notebook is that you can generate a conversation between two AI voices talking through your sources of information. It's kind of like making a podcast specifically for you.
Tom's Guide
06-06-2025
- Tom's Guide
This AI tool is like Perplexity, NotebookLM, and ChatGPT put together — here's why you need it
I don't know if you've noticed, but there are a lot of AI tools out there. An overwhelming number, some might say. So choosing the right option for you can be surprisingly challenging. Of course, there are the obvious options like ChatGPT, Gemini, or one of the other major AI brands, powered by billions in funding and massive supercomputers. However, that doesn't mean they are always the best option for what you need. For example, for students looking to get an edge on a research project, there are lots of other great options out there. After spending some time testing it, one of my new top picks is Logically. Logically, formerly known as Afforai, is an AI workspace. It can be used for both research and writing. In the Logically app or desktop system, you can have everything you need in one place. Start a new document, and you can set headings, write text, add bullet points, tables, images, code, and pretty much anything you would need to write a book, article, research paper, or essay. This alone is seen in countless places like Notion, Word or pretty much any other AI-powered writing software. Logically stands out by combining its writing technology with AI research tools in a few ways: Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. Chatbot functionality Much like NotebookLM, you can add research documents, papers, or links for the tool to comb through. Alternatively, through the built-in chatbot, you can ask questions using AI models like Gemini, GPT-4o, or Claude 3.5. This is paired with Google search functions to work in the same way as you might use ChatGPT or Gemini to research a project. Research like a scholar Equally, you can use a feature called Semantic Scholar. Instead of searching the web and the training data of whichever AI model you're using, it will comb through a database of 200 million peer-review research papers. In this mode, it will not only offer the research papers that best answer your question, but it will also offer the reference, the best quote from the paper and allow you to save your reference straight into a bibliography if needed. Document retrival Finally, if you have an exact list of research documents you want to use, a third tool will change the chatbot to only answer questions from your list of research sources. This will also provide citations and references for any information it provides you. Referencing is, quite frankly, a nightmare. Trying to remember where you found a quote, figure or concept can take forever if you don't note it down. Even if you do, there is then the formatting to make it correct for the document. Part of the benefit of Logically is that it does it all for you. Upload documents and links to your project and it will keep them all in one place. By doing this, you can search these documents using the in-built chatbot or just use them for referencing down the line. You can also add tags to different sources, keeping them all organised in different categories. With all of the incredible things AI can do right now, this is hardly ground-breaking. In a lot of ways, this is a tool that is simply taking the best of other AI systems and using them all in one place. But, that is what works so well. Why split your time between ChatGPT, NotebookLM and Perplexity, when you can have them all in one place. On top of all those research tools, youa also have your actual project in the same place too. For the occasional quick project, this isn't all that useful. But if you're in school, working towards a PhD or in a research role that requires you to be constantly deep into a project, Logically feels like it has nailed the formula.
