Welcome to The Upgrade

Welcome to my weekly newsletter, which focuses on the intersection of AI, media, and storytelling. A special welcome to my new readers from UPenn, UT Austin, Digital Sparks, and many other top organizations — you’re in good company!

In today’s issue:

• The Week’s Top AI Stories 📰

• 🎓 20% off the MindStudio Academy: Learn AI Today! ⚡️

• 🎧Podcast: Editor, Writer, & Entrepreneur John Biggs on the future of AI-powered reporting

• 🎙️The Big Interview: Alchemiq Founders launch AI-powered news startup to better cover the Gaza War—and other divisive stories!

The Week’s Top AI Stories

Top AI Headlines

• Where Is the AI Boom Taking Us? Business Leaders Disagree on Outlook — The Wall Street Journal

• Met Gala Deepfakes Are Flooding Social Media — WIRED

• AI Challenger Mistral Set to Nearly Triple Valuation to $6 Billion in Six Months — The Wall Street Journal

• Biden, Announcing A.I. Center, Highlights a Win of His and a Failing of Trump’s — The New York Times

• Apple Nears Deal With OpenAI to Put ChatGPT on iPhone — Bloomberg

• Burnout Is Pushing Workers to Use AI—Even if Their Boss Doesn’t Know — WIRED

Ethics & Safety

• OpenAI Is ‘Exploring’ How to Responsibly Generate AI Porn — WIRED

• OpenAI Releases ‘Deepfake’ Detector to Disinformation Researchers — The New York Times

• This clever, “poisonous” new software is helping artists defend their work from AI — Fast Company

• Social media platforms race to address AI-generated images ahead of November election — CNN

• Is AI lying to me? Scientists warn of growing capacity for deception — The Guardian

Legal, Policy & Copyright

• Here’s how California state agencies plan to use generative AI — Fast Company

• Nvidia, Databricks Sued in Latest AI Copyright Class Actions — Bloomberg

• Stability AI, Midjourney should face artists' copyright case, judge says — Reuters

• OpenAI is touting a new plan to protect creator works—here’s why it won’t actually resolve AI’s copyright crisis — Fortune

• How One Author Pushed the Limits of AI Copyright — WIRED

AI in the Workplace

• Will AI Be a Job Killer? Call Us Skeptical — The Wall Street Journal

• Virtual Workers Are Here to Take Your Job—and Give You a Promotion — The Wall Street Journal

• AI Bots Are Taking Over the Job Application Process. Everyone Is Losing. — The Wall Street Journal

🎓Next week: MindStudio Academy! 💻

Ready to learn the fastest way to build no-code AI-powered apps and automations? The Upgrade is partnering with MindStudio to lead the MindStudio Academy. ⚡️

The next cohort starts on Saturday, May 18th at 7pm ET / 4pm PT. Only a few spots left, so don’t wait!

SAVE 20% with code: THEUPGRADE20

💡 The Big Interview: Founders launch AI news startup to tell all sides of divisive issues🗞️

Alchemiq founders Yaron Oliker and Orr Hirschauge discuss building their AI-powered news startup!

Peter: Yaron, tell me about your background as an entrepreneur and in machine learning. How did you first get involved in the news space?

Yaron: In 2015, I founded a bot detection company that used behavioral biometrics - analyzing how humans uniquely interact with their devices through sensors like the gyroscope and touchscreen - to build models of authentic human behavior. We then applied anomaly detection to identify bot activity. This was in the wake of the 2016 election and Cambridge Analytica scandal, when the threat of computational propaganda and social media manipulation was becoming a major issue. We worked with major clients like Facebook and LinkedIn to help combat this new breed of bots. The company was acquired in 2019 for tens of millions.

But as AI has advanced, it's clear that bots will only get more sophisticated—we need a paradigm shift in how we approach misinformation, which is what led to the start of our new company.

Peter: Orr, as a veteran journalist, editor and media executive, what are the biggest challenges you see with how news is consumed and shared online today? How is that impacting public discourse?

Orr: The core issue is that no one is getting the full story anymore. News feeds are controlled by algorithms optimized for engagement, catering to confirmation bias, filter bubbles, and content that incites strong emotions—typically anger and outrage. That's hugely problematic for healthy public debate.

Publishers have struggled to adapt to the online economy. Many chased social media algorithms or pivoted hard to subscription models. Both approaches incentivize a kind of "tribal journalism" where readers are only exposed to one side of complex, nuanced stories. There are now conflicting realities and echo chambers, which makes it very difficult to find common ground or make societal progress. We believe there has to be a better way.

Peter: Tell me about what your new company is building to address these challenges. What's the core product, and how does it work?

Orr: We've built an AI tool that aggregates news from around the world and breaks it down into the key claims and narratives being put forth by different media sources and geographies.

You input a topic like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for example, and it will surface the main narratives from Israeli media, Arab media, international media, etc. Using clustering algorithms, it distills each side down to the central claims and perspectives.

The goal is to cut through the noise and give readers a neutral, side-by-side view of diverse global narratives on complex issues. It reveals "what's going on in people's minds," not just the objective facts. We're using it to generate balanced, insightful content on our own site Alchemiq.ai to help people make sense of world events.

Peter: What's your go-to-market strategy for getting this in front of news consumers? Are you planning to build your own destination site or partner with existing publishers?

Yaron: We're pursuing both a B2C and B2B model. On the consumer side, we're focused on growing Alchemiq.ai as a destination for this unique multi-perspective content. But we know building an audience from scratch is challenging.

So, we're also partnering with publishers to provide our content as a service they can feature on their own sites. It's a revenue share model with no upfront costs. Our content is high-quality, brand-safe, and optimized for engagement and SEO.

For publishers still reliant on ads, it's a low-risk way to grow traffic and ad inventory without adding costs. It also provides a differentiated offering to attract and retain readers. We already have several active pilots and proof-of-concepts underway with news outlets globally.

Peter: What are some interesting insights or use cases you've uncovered so far using the platform? Any surprising differences in how the same story is covered?

Orr: We recently analyzed global coverage of the lunar eclipse. You'd think a scientific phenomenon would be covered objectively, but there were clear differences. Conservative media focused heavily on negative aspects - traffic jams, animals acting erratically, accidents. While liberal media focused more on the wonder of nature and scientific marvels.

We've also seen some fascinating, lesser-known details surface in more important news stories. For example, one narrative circulating in Arab media claimed the October 7th attacks were triggered because six red heifers were imported to Israel last year, which has some obscure religious significance. And that's for reasons of arcane religious ceremonies that have to do with reconstructing a Jewish temple in Jerusalem. That was attributed in this media source as an act by the Israeli government to destroy the Al-Aqsa mosque. Now you can say, you know, this narrative is insane; it has nothing to do with reality, and that's all fair and good. But that story is going strong, and tons of news consumers are exposed to it and feel it reflects their understanding of reality.

That perspective, however fringe, is not well known outside the Arab world but helps illuminate our understanding of tensions, even just a tiny part. Surfacing those diverse global viewpoints is core to what we're trying to do—not choosing sides but illuminating various realities.

Don’t be shy—hit reply if you have thoughts or feedback. I’d love to connect with you!

Until next week,

Peter

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