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aisvarya17.bsky.social
Aisvarya Chandrasekar
@aisvarya17.bsky.social
140 followers 330 following 15 posts
I work at @towcenter.bsky.social as a computational research fellow, studying the impact of AI tools in journalism. I am a grantee in Brown Institute’s 2024-25 Magic Grant cohort, building PollFinder.ai.
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aisvarya17.bsky.social
Aisvarya Chandrasekar @aisvarya17.bsky.social · Mar 6
@klaudia.bsky.social and I spent a few months studying how generative search tools cite news content. We'd love to hear your thoughts on our findings!

@towcenter.bsky.social @columjournreview.bsky.social
klaudia.bsky.social
klaudia jaźwińska @klaudia.bsky.social · Mar 6
NEW: We ran 1600 queries across eight generative AI search tools to see how they cite news content. They all did pretty poorly. (w/ @aisvarya17.bsky.social for @towcenter.bsky.social in @columjournreview.bsky.social) www.cjr.org/tow_center/w...
We Compared Eight AI Search Engines. They’re All Bad at Citing News.
AI search tools are rapidly gaining in popularity, with nearly one in four Americans now saying they have used AI in place of traditional search engines. These tools derive their value from crawling t...
www.cjr.org
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Reposted by Aisvarya Chandrasekar
emilybell.bsky.social
Emily Bell @emilybell.bsky.social · 20d
In a shock development - AI companies are failing to benchmark what matters in newsrooms. More excellent work from our Tow Center research team @klaudia.bsky.social and @aisvarya17.bsky.social
columjournreview.bsky.social
Columbia Journalism Review @columjournreview.bsky.social · 20d
The performance tests used by AI companies don’t measure what matters in the newsroom. By @klaudia.bsky.social and @aisvarya17.bsky.social for @towcenter.bsky.social. www.cjr.org/analysis/jou...
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Reposted by Aisvarya Chandrasekar
klaudia.bsky.social
klaudia jaźwińska @klaudia.bsky.social · 20d
In our latest piece for CJR, @aisvarya17.bsky.social and I argue that third-party evaluation of AI models is not just a technical matter; it’s a matter of accountability. www.cjr.org/analysis/jou...
Journalists need their own benchmark tests for AI tools.
The performance tests used by AI companies don’t measure what matters in the newsroom.
www.cjr.org
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Reposted by Aisvarya Chandrasekar
columjournreview.bsky.social
Columbia Journalism Review @columjournreview.bsky.social · 20d
The performance tests used by AI companies don’t measure what matters in the newsroom. By @klaudia.bsky.social and @aisvarya17.bsky.social for @towcenter.bsky.social. www.cjr.org/analysis/jou...
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Reposted by Aisvarya Chandrasekar
fstegers.bsky.social
Fiete Stegers @fstegers.bsky.social · Aug 29
The Tow Center has looked into how good LLMs are at verifying and geolocating an image. Gentle reminder: "on multiple occasions models blatantly lied about the steps they took to arrive at an answer to our query" www.cjr.org/tow_center/w... #ai #osint
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Reposted by Aisvarya Chandrasekar
towcenter.bsky.social
Tow Center for Digital Journalism @towcenter.bsky.social · Aug 28
We asked seven different AI models to identify the location, date and source of photos taken by photojournalists, they collectively only answered 14 out of 280 queries completely correctly.

@aisvarya17.bsky.social @klaudia.bsky.social @columjournreview.bsky.social

www.cjr.org/tow_center/w...
Why AI Models Are Bad at Verifying Photos
“You don't know when it's just making stuff up.”
www.cjr.org
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aisvarya17.bsky.social
Aisvarya Chandrasekar @aisvarya17.bsky.social · Aug 28
New Research: Can AI models be used to fact-check images?

www.cjr.org/tow_center/w...

I cannot summarize this piece better than @klaudia.bsky.social did in this thread. The methodology and data from the experiment are linked in the article. Reach out with any questions, comments, or feedback!
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Reposted by Aisvarya Chandrasekar
klaudia.bsky.social
klaudia jaźwińska @klaudia.bsky.social · Aug 26
NEW in @columjournreview.bsky.social: Why AI models are bad at fact-checking photos www.cjr.org/tow_center/w...
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Reposted by Aisvarya Chandrasekar
dmil.bsky.social
Dhrumil Mehta @dmil.bsky.social · Aug 26
Great work by @aisvarya17.bsky.social and @klaudia.bsky.social. Read more below!

www.cjr.org/tow_center/w...
Why AI models are bad at verifying photos
Many of the latest large language models, including OpenAI’s recently released GPT-5, tout an impressive capability: reasoning about images. We have seen viral trends of AI models geolocating obscure ...
www.cjr.org
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Reposted by Aisvarya Chandrasekar
foeke.bsky.social
Foeke Postma @foeke.bsky.social · Aug 28
More testing of LLMs for journalism, this time on identifying image location, date, and source.
By @aisvarya17.bsky.social and @klaudia.bsky.social with some of my own commentary.
www.cjr.org/tow_center/w... @columjournreview.bsky.social
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Reposted by Aisvarya Chandrasekar
columjournreview.bsky.social
Columbia Journalism Review @columjournreview.bsky.social · May 15
The Future of News and Search:
The Tow Center for Digital Journalism interviewed news and tech industry representatives about AI’s impact on platforms and publishers. They expressed some hope and a lot of trepidation. By Klaudia Jaźwińska. www.cjr.org/the_media_to...
A New Report Takes On the Future of News and Search
The Tow Center for Digital Journalism interviewed news and tech industry representatives about AI’s impact on platforms and publishers. They expressed some hope and a lot of trepidation.
www.cjr.org
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Reposted by Aisvarya Chandrasekar
sparcopen.bsky.social
SPARC @sparcopen.bsky.social · May 20
SPARC has invited @klaudia.bsky.social & @aisvarya17.bsky.social (Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia U) @davehansen.bsky.social (Authors Alliance) & @petersuber.bsky.social (Harvard U) to discuss AI issues on May 29 at 1 pm EDT. SPARC members can register at: sparcopen.org/event/sparc-...
SPARC Webcast: OA, Attribution, and Addressing Faculty AI Concerns - SPARC
As AI adoption accelerates, authors have growing concerns over maintaining control of their own work that may reduce their willingness to share their research openly. Publisher licensing deals with AI...
sparcopen.org
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Reposted by Aisvarya Chandrasekar
klaudia.bsky.social
klaudia jaźwińska @klaudia.bsky.social · May 15
I wrote about the report - and publishers' anxiety around the decline of traditional search - in today's @columjournreview.bsky.social newsletter www.cjr.org/the_media_to...
Journalism Zero: How Platforms and Publishers are Navigating AI
<p>Download the PDF here. This research is generously funded by the Tow Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Introduction Early in our first interview, a veteran news exec...
www.cjr.org
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Reposted by Aisvarya Chandrasekar
klaudia.bsky.social
klaudia jaźwińska @klaudia.bsky.social · May 15
A new report I co-authored for the @towcenter.bsky.social is out today! We interviewed representatives from the news and technology industries about AI’s impact on the relationship between platforms and publishers. They expressed some hope and a lot of trepidation. www.cjr.org/the_media_to...
A New Report Takes On the Future of News and Search
The Tow Center for Digital Journalism interviewed news and tech industry representatives about AI’s impact on platforms and publishers. They expressed some hope and a lot of trepidation.
www.cjr.org
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Reposted by Aisvarya Chandrasekar
ndiakopoulos.bsky.social
Nick Diakopoulos @ndiakopoulos.bsky.social · Apr 2
Google's "AI Mode" in action. To the extent anyone uses it, this will be a traffic killer for news: two clicks to actually visit a site and you have to click the link icon for the sidebar to update with the sources so it also limits source credibility signals.
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Reposted by Aisvarya Chandrasekar
reutersinstitute.bsky.social
Reuters Institute @reutersinstitute.bsky.social · Mar 17
2️⃣ At 10:15 GMT we'll examine the power dynamics emerging between news organisations and AI developers, focusing on content licensing and data valuation

Featuring @fedecherubini.bsky.social @felixsimon.bsky.social @agstrait.bsky.social @mattrogerson.bsky.social @klaudia.bsky.social
buff.ly/dEmIIrg
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columjournreview.bsky.social
Columbia Journalism Review @columjournreview.bsky.social · Mar 20
Google and OpenAI want Trump to open up the rules. News publishers have some thoughts, by Klaudia Jaźwińska. www.cjr.org/the_media_to...
The Battle over AI and Copyright Enters a New Phase
Google and OpenAI want Trump to open up the rules. News publishers have some thoughts.
www.cjr.org
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Reposted by Aisvarya Chandrasekar
parismarx.com
Paris Marx @parismarx.com · Mar 18
Columbia Journalism Review tested eight generative AI search tools and found their answers were wrong 60% of the time, and the paid ones actually fared worse than the free ones.

Meanwhile, millions of people trust the way they present total bullshit with confident language.
AI search engines cite incorrect sources at an alarming 60% rate, study says
CJR study shows AI search services misinform users and ignore publisher exclusion requests.
arstechnica.com
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Reposted by Aisvarya Chandrasekar
emmbadger.bsky.social
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · Mar 13
Imagine if all of government reported data like DOGE does -- deleting numbers, altering them without notice, pointing numbers to the wrong things.

w/ another awesome @ethansinger.bsky.social graphic:

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/13/u...
See How Elon Musk’s Team Inflated, Deleted and Rewrote Its Savings Claims (Gift Article)
The cost-cutting group removed hundreds of contracts from its “wall of receipts,” added back many of them, and inflated savings values.
www.nytimes.com
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aisvarya17.bsky.social
Aisvarya Chandrasekar @aisvarya17.bsky.social · Mar 13
It was 60% wrong within the context of the experiment we ran

bsky.app/profile/aisv...
aisvarya17.bsky.social
Aisvarya Chandrasekar @aisvarya17.bsky.social · Mar 13
It's heartening to see that our research is being shared widely and there is interest in holding AI tools accountable. But there have been some representations of our research that we would like to address.

www.cjr.org/tow_center/w...

@klaudia.bsky.social
AI Search Has A Citation Problem
We Compared Eight AI Search Engines. They’re All Bad at Citing News.
www.cjr.org
Reposted by Aisvarya Chandrasekar
emilybell.bsky.social
Emily Bell @emilybell.bsky.social · Mar 13
On a darker note - the hyper partisan dark money funded ‘news’ websites we have studied for 5 years or more @towcenter.bsky.social are taking an ugly AI turn. This was always going to happen - will not be the first or last incidence . www.nytimes.com/2025/03/12/u...
Yale Scholar Banned After A.I. News Site Accuses Her of Terrorist Link
The deputy director of a liberal project at Yale Law School was put on leave over allegations that she is linked to Samidoun, a group the U.S. government has said funds terrorists.
www.nytimes.com
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aisvarya17.bsky.social
Aisvarya Chandrasekar @aisvarya17.bsky.social · Mar 13
What we expect is transparency of what a chatbot can and cannot provide. Every single chatbot we tested exhibited a lack of transparency. They all provided an illusion of trustworthiness.
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aisvarya17.bsky.social
Aisvarya Chandrasekar @aisvarya17.bsky.social · Mar 13
While getting the ‘right’ answer from a chatbot is certainly very important, it is not always a marker of preferred behavior, especially when it suggests a potential violation of restrictions placed by publishers.
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aisvarya17.bsky.social
Aisvarya Chandrasekar @aisvarya17.bsky.social · Mar 13
Our research has sometimes been framed as a competitive ranking of chatbot accuracy. That was not our goal. The purpose of our research was to see whether these tools cite sources correctly and observe their response when a publisher restricts access to their content.
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aisvarya17.bsky.social
Aisvarya Chandrasekar @aisvarya17.bsky.social · Mar 13
It's heartening to see that our research is being shared widely and there is interest in holding AI tools accountable. But there have been some representations of our research that we would like to address.

www.cjr.org/tow_center/w...

@klaudia.bsky.social
AI Search Has A Citation Problem
We Compared Eight AI Search Engines. They’re All Bad at Citing News.
www.cjr.org
1 1 4
Reposted by Aisvarya Chandrasekar
klaudia.bsky.social
klaudia jaźwińska @klaudia.bsky.social · Mar 13
This post is misleading. We were testing specifically to see whether the chatbots accurately identified the sources of excerpts from news articles. We did not intend to extrapolate these findings to the overall accuracy of the chatbots.
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