South China Morning Post (February 7)
“China’s state security ministry has stepped forward to warn those who disseminate ‘short’ views on the country’s economic and market prospects.” Based on this year’s performance, “excessive information manipulation has backfired and frightened away investors” from Chinese stocks on the Shanghai and Hong Kong exchanges. “To investors, a one-sided story, no matter how good it may look on the surface, is not trustworthy if there’s no counter-balance…. The rational response would be to stay away.”
Tags: ‘Short’ views, Backfired, China, Counter-balance, Frightened, Hong Kong, Information, Investors, Manipulation, Performance, Prospects, Security ministry, Shanghai, Stocks, Trustworthy, Warn
American Banker (August 9)
“Bad actors, unconfined by ethical boundaries, recently released two large language models designed to help fraudsters write phishing prompts and hackers write malware.” In the future, “banks and other companies may need to contend” with novel threats “as fraudsters master the use of large language models.” Companies will also need to consider many risks “when building and deploying their own large language models: theft of models; leaks of information (such as investing advice or personal transaction histories) by model outputs: and manipulation of models by poisoned data (such as open-source data that a malicious actor has intentionally manipulated to be inaccurate).”
Tags: Bad actors, Banks, Ethical boundaries, Fraudsters, Hackers, Investing, Large language models, Malware, Manipulation, Phishing, Risks, Theft, Threats, Transaction
Wall Street Journal (March 25)
The aggregate M-Score index, which measures manipulation across corporate America “shows that the collective probability of fraud across major companies is the highest in over 40 years,” possibly foreshadowing economic downturn. “The theory is that their index might be catching distress in the stages when some companies are taking steps to try to cover it up…. The stock market might behave like the corporate sector is still humming along when in reality, its earnings are increasingly buoyed by tricks.”
Tags: Aggregate, Distress, Earnings, Economic downturn, Fraud, Highest, Index, M-Score, Major companies, Manipulation, Stock market
CNN (November 26)
“When we use the term ‘fake news’ it is not only self-defeating, it oversimplifies a very complex problem.” The term once “meant something. It described a particular type of website that used the same design templates as professional news websites but its contents were entirely fabricated.” Since being hijacked, fake news is now “used to describe any piece of information that someone else didn’t like.” Instead, we must confront manifold issues surrounding misleading information. “The truth is that there are no easy solutions…. Ultimately, it is only logic and critical thinking which could save us from the trap of manipulation.”
Tags: Critical thinking, Fabricated, Fake news, Logic, Manipulation, Misleading information, Self-defeating, Truth
Washington Post (November 4)
In Nicaragua, there is “an even more depressing election than our own.” Daniel Ortega will on Sunday, “following gross manipulation of the constitution and electoral system… preside over his reelection as president, as well as the installation of his wife, Rosario Murillo, as vice president.” Struggling with failing health, his wife can serve as a placeholder to “ensure that the presidency remains in his family; his children are waiting in the wings.”
Tags: Constitution, Depressing, Election, Health, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/an-even-more-depressing-election-than-our-own/2016/11/03/9c2b1f7e-a05d-11e6-8832-23a007c77bb4_story.html, Manipulation, Murillo, Nicaragua, Ortega, Reelection
