The naïve view of information
Mon Aug 31 2026
In a previous blog of mine “Is humanity intelligent enough for artificial intelligence?”, I comment about building AI models based on explicit knowledge, which is overrun with people shouting the loudest but not necessarily with wisdom. My thinking about loud versus wisdom resonated with me regarding an excellent book I am reading “A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI” written by historian and philosopher Yuval Noah Harari.
Harari talks about the naïve view of information, saying “The naïve view expects that if all restrictions on the free flow of information are removed, error will inevitably be exposed and displaced by truth.”
His next comment really nailed it for me, “This is wishful thinking. Since fiction is typically cheaper, simpler and more flattering than the truth, in a completely free market of information, the truth will likely drown under a flood of fiction.”
This is epitomised in the term “tabloid journalism”, sensationalism is easy (and drives clicks) and facts are hard. Anyone can dream up fiction, but facts need proof, and a lot of us are lazy and can’t be bothered with the effort truth takes.
With misinformation, disinformation and malinformation rife in our feeds, and the effort it takes to fact check, most of us resign ourselves to just absorb the fiction, consciously or not. Thus, opening the flow of information does not often lead to truth but instead toxic echo chambers.
This links back to my comment about what we train our AI models on, truths that are expensive or fictions that are cheap? The premise that the more data we train our AI models on the better they will be is undermined by the relative scarcity of truths versus the proliferation of fictions.
As a business consultant and fractional CIO for my customers, I make sure information technology eases the way, not gets in the way. I am working on multiple uses cases for AI with my customers and the naïve view of information is often a perspective that is presented by vendors to my customers, and rightly so they question this proposition, hence why I am there.
Misinformation, disinformation and malinformation can manifest via AI just as well as it does via us humans. The challenge is that we ask AI for assistance, so we are invested in the outcome, you are not getting unsolicited information, you solicited it. AI can present this information you solicited in a very compelling and apparently credible way; a fiction is presented as a fact and on the surface, it looks like the truth. And you are inclined to believe it.
When you use AI be cognizant of the naïve view of information and take steps to recognise and treat it. Do not stop using AI, it’s a great tool, but it is only a tool. Focus on quality data not quantity to avoid the naïve view of information and the route to fiction.
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BVO — The Quiet Risk of “By Virtue Of” AuthorityThu Jun 25 2026
Is humanity intelligent enough for artificial intelligence? Sun May 03 2026
