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Verified By BOOM 63

Verified By BOOM 63

Is Your Next Door Pharmacist An ‘AI Doctor’ Too?

September 02, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 10 minutes

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Hello,

Uh, what? Are you confused? Well, there is a new phenomenon on social media— AI doctors who are peddling ChatBot advice as home remedies.

Read on!

🔖 A video of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee where it appears that she said Hindu epic Mahabharat was written by Bengali poet and freedom fighter Kazi Nazrul Islam, was shared by many social media users.

Not one, not two…but as many as six news outlets joined the bandwagon.

Quick fact: It’s a cropped video. The chief minister did not say Mahabharat was written by Kazi Nazrul Islam.

What should you do if you come across a video which is too good to be true or too bad to be true?

Well, if I talk about this case:

Look for the longer version of the viral video on official handles.
Preferably, a LIVE stream since it’s an unedited version.
That’s what BOOM did. We found a LIVE stream on AITC Official, the YouTube channel of Trinamool Congress.

Read this fact-check to know what she actually said.

🅱️ Quiz

Do you know what really happened in the news this week? Find out by taking the BOOM quiz:

👆 Simply click on image below to start the quiz!

🤥 The Lie Count

26 Fact-Checks Published

Political and scripted content were tied at the top (19% each), followed by claims pertaining to the technical achievements of Chandrayaan-3 (15%).

Muslims, ISRO and Chandrayaan-3 were tied as salient targets of false claims, accounting for 11%, 12%, and 20% of the claims respectively.

Read our thread on ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) to know the detailed analysis by Debraj Sarkar.

#BOOMWeeklyReport | Last week, BOOM published a total of 26 fact-checks. Of these, political and scripted content were tied at the top (19% each), followed by claims pertaining to the technical achievements of #Chandrayaan3 (15%). (1/n)
Read our full report by @s66714143 👇
— BOOM Live (@boomlive_in)
10:39 AM • Sep 1, 2023

🤖 Not Real Doctors: AI Docs Peddling ChatBot Advice As Home Remedies.

🔖 From tips on how to get white teeth like PM Narendra Modi to preventing conjunctivitis— welcome to the new social media phenomenon of AI doctors.

RK is an owner of a similar Facebook page that doles out medical and nutritional advice. He is a pharmacist by profession.
“I have more than 9 years of experience in the field, and have been advising my friends and family for many years,” he told Decode’s Titha Ghosh.
His research is based on Google web pages such as Healthline and WebMD as well as other AI sites.

Read this story to find out the modus operandi of an ‘AI Doctor’.

⏰ Also, set a reminder for Monday, 4 September at 8 pm IST and tune into ‘X’ spaces for a discussion on how reliable AI doctors are.

📚 How EdTech Companies Get Away With Exploiting Data Of Minors

Meanwhile, Decode (with support from Digital Empowerment Foundation) surveyed parents of 44 children (between the ages of 11-18 years) in Noida to assess the kind of information they’re asked for by EdTech organisations during sales drives.

73% said that third-party companies have reached out to them asking for their signatures.
Exactly 50% said they’ve shared their Aadhaar and other personal details such as address, contact numbers and OTPs with platforms.

Decode spoke to several data safety organisations and project leaders who work to defend online freedom and data privacy in India.

🌕 'Shiv Shakti' To 'Jawahar Sthal': How Are Lunar Sites Named?

🔖 Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the point on the lunar surface where the Chandrayaan-3 lander touched down on 23 August would be called Shiv Shakti.

He also added that the spot where the Chandrayaan-2 crash-landed in 2019 would be called ‘Tiranga’.

So, how are points on the lunar surface named? Has India named sites on the Moon ever before? Read this explainer by Hera Rizwan.

Teacher Asks Class To Hit Muslim Student; Video From UP Goes Viral

🔖 In a significant development, the Centre on 29 August said Jammu and Kashmir would not remain as a Union Territory (UT) forever, and its conversion to a Union Territory was not a “permanent feature”. Ladakh would continue to remain as a Union Territory, said Solicitor General Tushar Mehta.

The Supreme Court is hearing pleas against the revocation of special status granted to Jammu and Kashmir. Read this report by Ritika Jain.

🚫 Fake News You Almost Fell For

🔍Claims of China becoming the first country to land on the moon's South Pole a few years ago went viral on social media. But it’s a false claim. So, where exactly on the "far side" of the moon did China land in 2019? Find out in this fact-check by🔗Nidhi Jacob↗️.

🔍A video of Mukesh Ambani making an announcement for an investment fund for women and appointing a certain Laila Rao to head the same is fake and part of an elaborate online scam. BOOM’s 🔗Anmol Alphonso↗️ debunked the claim.

🔍 A screenshot of a comment made by a reader beneath an article by the Washington Post about Chandrayaan-3 was falsely shared to claim that the publication praised India's successful lunar mission. BOOM’s 🔗Hazel Gandhi↗️ found that the text shows a user comment under a story by the Post, not an excerpt from their article.

🔍A video showing some students raising slogans of 'Nara-e-Takbeer' and 'Allah-hu-Akbar' went viral with the false claim that Kashmiri students in Mewar University, Rajasthan, beat up an engineering student for celebrating the success of Chandrayaan-3. Read this fact-check by 🔗Runjay Kumar↗️.

🅱️ Recommends

📖 This week's recommendation is: Do you have a duty to tell people they’re wrong about carrots? by Giulia Terzian & M Inés Corbalán

Many of you may find yourself in real life situations where testifying to facts might present many challenges. This opinion piece acts as a manual for those who consider themselves to be obliged to uphold the truth.

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Verified By Boom is written by Divya Chandra, edited by Adrija Bose

and designed by H Shiva Roy Chowdhury.

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