In Pt. 2 of my series on TikTok, I continue to delve deeper into TikTok's algorithms to explore the question of whether they introduce and propagate bias. I'll also share the results of a survey I conducted to assess whether people could detect bias in the news they consume on social media. Finally, I'll share my opinion on policy recommendations to reduce bias in social media platforms. 

To explore technology bias, I recently did a research project about TikTok, a popular social media platform. In this Part 1 of a two part series, I'll introduce the background and history of TikTok as well as some key important industry terms like shadowbanning and filter bubbles. I'll also talk about how TikTok's algorithms work to set up a deeper exploration into bias in Part 2. 

I continue my conversation with Dr, Sue Hertz, digging deeper into the complexities of text-to-speech technology, including the challenges of embedding emotions into speech. We talk about specific examples of speech nuance - like the difference in the sound of the letter “p” in the word “Poke” versus “Spoke”. We also discuss how it has taken years of research to get to the point where Synfonica’s text-to-speech system is today.  I loved hearing her talk about her fascination with how listeners parse the nuances of speech.