Ashley Belanger

Ashley Belanger is a senior policy reporter at Ars Technica, dedicated to tracking social impacts of emerging policies and new technologies. She has over 20 years of experience in journalism, currently focusing on monitoring regulatory developments around AI, cryptocurrency, social media and the semiconductor industry. Ashley has contributed investigative reporting to major outlets such as Teen Vogue, National Geographic, The Boston Globe and Frontline. She has a Bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Florida and a Master's degree in science writing from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her investigative reporting on policy failures to prevent domestic and sexual violence has been funded by Knight Science Journalism and the National Geographic Society. Ashley is also connected with Ars Technica as a writer, where she covers recent stories such as OpenAI's flawed plan to flag deepfakes ahead of 2024 elections, SEC crypto crackdown continues with Robinhood as lawsuit looms and Email Microsoft didn’t want seen reveals rushed decision to invest in OpenAI. Connect with Ashley on Twitter.

Biography:  https://arstechnica.com/author/ashleybelanger/

78%

The overall score is a weighted number that takes into account conflict of interest, bias, deception and other practices that undermines the credibility of the source. It is calculated as:
Analysis.OverallConflictOfInterestScore * 0.3F + Analysis.OverallBiasScore * 0.3F + Analysis.DeceptivenessScore * 0.3F + Analysis.ReadabilityScore * 0.1F

A score that takes into consideration the content for flow, interruptions with ads, and overt search engine optimization techniques that makes the content hard to understand

The Daily's Verdict

This author has a mixed reputation for journalistic standards. It is advisable to fact-check, scrutinize for bias, and check for conflicts of interest before relying on the author's reporting.

Bias

85%

Examples:

  • Ashley appears to have a slight bias towards reporting on technology and its impacts on society, as evidenced by her dedication to tracking social impacts of emerging policies and new technologies in her role as a senior policy reporter.
  • She may also have a slight preference for investigative reporting, as she has contributed investigative pieces to major outlets and served as a fact-checker for Scientific American and Undark Magazine.

Conflicts of Interest

85%

Examples:

  • However, there may be a perceived conflict of interest due to Ashley's contribution to investigative reporting on policy failures to prevent domestic and sexual violence, which could potentially be seen as having a personal stake in these issues.
  • There is no direct evidence of any conflicts of interest in the articles provided.

Contradictions

75%

Examples:

  • In one article, it was mentioned that Microsoft invested $1 billion into OpenAI mere weeks later.
  • There were contradictions found in the articles regarding Google's alleged monopoly in markets for Android app distribution and Epic Games' suggestions of goofing around instead of working behind the scenes with carriers and smartphone makers.

Deceptions

60%

Examples:

  • For example, it was mentioned that Epic Games filed a proposed injunction with the federal court seeking Google to make big changes to the Play Store, but later it was stated that Google must also allow developers to communicate directly with their consumers which seems like a contradiction.
  • There are instances where misleading information may have been presented.

Recent Articles

OpenAI's Media Manager: Empowering Creators to Control AI Use of Their Works

OpenAI's Media Manager: Empowering Creators to Control AI Use of Their Works

Broke On: Tuesday, 07 May 2024 OpenAI is developing Media Manager, a tool set to launch in 2025 that will allow creators and content owners to control how their works are used in AI research and training. The tool aims to address concerns raised by some creators regarding the use of their content for model training without their consent. OpenAI has faced criticism for scraping publicly available data from the web, including a recent lawsuit by eight prominent US newspapers.
Microsoft's Fear of Falling Behind in AI: The Internal Email that Changed Microsoft-OpenAI Relations

Microsoft's Fear of Falling Behind in AI: The Internal Email that Changed Microsoft-OpenAI Relations

Broke On: Wednesday, 01 May 2024 Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott expressed concerns about falling behind in AI development due to Google's early advancements, leading Microsoft to invest over $13 billion in OpenAI and integrate its models into various products.
Epic Games Wins Surprise Victory Against Google in Federal Court, Seeking Changes to Play Store

Epic Games Wins Surprise Victory Against Google in Federal Court, Seeking Changes to Play Store

Broke On: Monday, 15 April 2024 Epic Games wins surprise victory against Google in federal court, with jury ruling that the company's app store and billing service constituted an illegal monopoly. Epic now seeks to make changes to the Play Store through a proposed injunction.

23andMe Data Breach: Personal Data of 6.9 Million Users Compromised

Broke On: Monday, 04 December 2023 Personal data of approximately 6.9 million 23andMe users was compromised. The hacker gained access to user profiles using previously leaked passwords and posted them for sale online. The stolen data primarily included users' ancestry information, with conflicting reports on the inclusion of health-related information. 23andMe is currently facing multiple class-action lawsuits and inquiries from governmental officials and agencies.