A new AI platform backed by billionaire investor Peter Thiel aims to hold journalists accountable by providing real-time ratings and investigations into their reporting practices. Objection, founded by entrepreneur Aron D'Souza, promises to offer a new way of holding the media to account, using artificial intelligence and former intelligence officers to examine complaints about journalism.
Background and Inspiration
The platform is promoted by D'Souza and Thiel, who met at Oxford University, after their involvement in wrestler Hulk Hogan's 2013 lawsuit against gossip media site Gawker over its publication of a sex tape featuring the star. D'Souza stated, "It's the first time ever in American history that a major media ally was truly held accountable for what they wrote, and Gawker went bankrupt after that." The case, which cost $10 million to challenge, was funded by Thiel, who had his own reasons for wanting to challenge Gawker after the site outed him as gay in a 2007 blog. D'Souza said the case "taught me that justice is highly inaccessible to most people" and that Hogan, despite being "a world-renowned figure, could not afford to prosecute his case through the courts."
How Objection Works
Objection, which D'Souza also founded alongside the Enhanced Games, is essentially industrializing what was done with Gawker. The platform deploys AI and former intelligence officers as investigators, including ex-CIA, FBI, and MI6 figures, to study complaints about journalism submitted to the platform for a fee. The platform's launch press release states that "For centuries, the press has acted as the de facto judge of public truth. Outlets investigate, publish, and pronounce verdicts on reputations — with no efficient mechanism for their claims to be rigorously examined in return."
Criticism of Expensive Lawyers
D'Souza is critical of the current legal system, saying that the court system is not designed to benefit people, corporations, or even billionaires, but rather lawyers. He notes that lawyers are billing thousands of dollars an hour, adding, "I don't think anyone's time is worth $2,000 an hour." He claims that many lawyers earn more than partners at Goldman Sachs and suggested that the legal sector's compensation "has gone off the charts."
AI as Judge, Jury, and Executioner
D'Souza points to declining trust in media, stating that "in 1970, 70 percent of Americans trusted the news media; today, that's less than 30 percent." In the UK, he suggested that public trust in the media is "probably lower" than in the US. He argues that while once a journalist's job was to sell a complete newspaper, today their role is to "generate articles with compelling headlines that lead to viral media distribution." He is critical of journalists blending fact and opinion, chasing clicks with viral headlines, and turning long interviews into mere "selective" extracts.
The Objection platform, which rolled out this week, gives every journalist in the world a real-time ratings card. The methodology focuses on four aspects of journalists' pieces: the use of anonymous sources, emotive language, clickbait constructions, and politicized language. Scoring badly in these areas will downrate a journalist's credibility score as judged by Objection.
Cost and Legal Standing
An investigation on the platform can cost "between $2,000 and $10,000" and last about half a week, with an ultimate decision made by the AI judge. D'Souza says this makes a system of redress more affordable compared to the cost of the current legal system. However, the conclusions are in no way legally binding compared to a libel trial in a US or English court.
Ultimately, D'Souza wants the AI platform to "become a Court of Arbitration" where parties agree to use Objection for disputes before conducting interviews or speaking to journalists. The website shows 10 live cases in the system, including one with a judgment against CNN, finding against a story that alleged podcast giant Joe Rogan promoted the use of a horse dewormer, Ivermectin, during the Covid pandemic. Another live investigation involves a Wall Street Journal story alleging that US President Donald Trump wrote a 50th-birthday note to Jeffrey Epstein containing the message "may every day be another wonderful secret."
Criticism and Concerns
Supporters of D'Souza's crusade may say it helps to level the playing field, providing a form of redress to those who cannot afford to engage a lawyer. But critics are concerned that the system appears stacked against journalists from the outset, not least given its hostility to the use of anonymous sources, which can serve as the foundation for investigative journalism. D'Souza stated, "In our ratings rubric, an anonymous source is valued as low as a rumour. Because ultimately, if it can't be replicated, then it's not a trustworthy piece of information."
