Hannes Cools
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hannescools.bsky.social
Hannes Cools
@hannescools.bsky.social
Assistant Professor, University of Amsterdam 🇳🇱 || Journalism, AI, Tech & innovation 👨‍💻 || Fellow Digital Democracy Centre 🇩🇰 & Marie Curie Scholar 🇪🇺 || #FirstGen
🌐 https://hannescools.com/
"Cools, Henk"

Nice to find some made-up references in a paper citing my work 🫠🫠
November 10, 2025 at 8:15 AM
Pressure had been building for days...

"BBC director general Tim Davie and CEO of News Deborah Turness resign following criticism that a BBC Panorama documentary misled viewers by editing a speech by US President Donald Trump."

Live coverage: www.bbc.com/news/live/cd...
November 9, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Yesterday, the European Commission launched some pointers on marking & labelling AI-generated content.🏷️

Downside: It will be a voluntary instrument to help providers of generative AI systems effectively meet their transparency obligations @ec.europa.eu
digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/comm...
November 6, 2025 at 10:00 AM
Interesting 🧐

BBC just released their updated AI transparency labels. They have devised a simple, neutral shape (a hexagon) which is derived from the BBC blocks.

The particular disclosure label is being trialled in BBC Sport live 👇

www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/...
November 4, 2025 at 4:48 PM
NOS now reports that 𝗣𝗩𝗩 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗻 𝗗𝟲𝟲 for the first time in terms of voter numbers. Such a close call is unprecedented.

(According to the ANP news agency, 99.6 percent of the votes have now been counted.)
nos.nl/liveblog/258...
October 30, 2025 at 8:48 AM
Frontpages of some of the main newspapers in NL, the day after 🇳🇱

Narrative is mainly: 𝗔 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘃𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗝𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗗𝟲𝟲! This morning, we see that this narrative is already shifting, as 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀...
October 30, 2025 at 8:47 AM
Difference between parties D66 & PVV in Dutch elections 🫣🇳🇱Seems only 2.378 votes, with 98% of the votes counted.
October 30, 2025 at 7:08 AM
🟥 D-Day voor de democratie vandaag. Maar ook voor onderwijs en onderzoek! Onderstaand overzicht geeft een idee op basis van NL verkiezingsprogramma's. Geen verdere bezuinigingen!

via @remcobreuker.bsky.social
October 29, 2025 at 6:50 AM
In 2024, we conducted 4 focus groups with audiences in The NL to get a better understanding of (1) if they notice AI-generated images vs. text in news (2), what the challenges & opportunities are, & (3) what requirements audiences foresee for the responsible use of AI-generated images in the news.
October 28, 2025 at 8:11 AM
✨ New publication: 𝐒𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐲 𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬' 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐀𝐈 𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐬 𝐯𝐬. 𝐭𝐞𝐱𝐭.

Especially relevant after yesterday's news of AI-generated images in political campaigns 👇

Together with Dina Strikovic (@ascor.bsky.social, @aimediademlab.bsky.social) 🧵
October 28, 2025 at 8:10 AM
Gemini recorded the highest proportion of significant issues, impacting 76% of responses. This was double the rate of the next assistant Copilot (37%), followed by ChatGPT (36%) and Perplexity (30%).
@ebu.ch
October 22, 2025 at 5:20 AM
22 news organizations, including BBC, just released damning research on AI assistants' news accuracy.

Results: across 4 LLMS, 45% of responses contained
at least one significant issue of any type. Sourcing is the single
biggest cause of significant issues (31%) 🤐🤐
www.ebu.ch/Report/MIS-B...
October 22, 2025 at 5:17 AM
🧐De Nederlandse Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens (AP) waarschuwt: chatbots geven vertekend stemadvies

In de resultaten in Figuur 1 is te zien dat niet iedere partij even vaak wordt geadviseerd.

Twee partijen komen opmerkelijk vaak op de eerste plek in het advies: PVV (30.5%) en GroenLinksPvdA (24.9%)👇
October 21, 2025 at 9:38 AM
“Transparency is More Than a Just Label": Audiences’ Information Needs for AI use Disclosures in News

Together w Sophie Morosoli, @laurensnaudts.bsky.social, Karthik Venkatraj, @natalihelberger.bsky.social & @claesdevreese.bsky.social

@aimediademlab.bsky.social

FP: osf.io/preprints/so...
October 21, 2025 at 7:22 AM
🎯 Audiences mention specific information needs, including:
- Logos and watermarks
- Contrasting colors and size
- Placement of indicators/labels

They also mention that different uses, topics and specific news outlets require different forms of disclosure.
October 21, 2025 at 7:14 AM
✨ New preprint: “𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐚 𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐋𝐚𝐛𝐞𝐥": 𝐀𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬’ 𝐈𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐍𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐀𝐈 𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐍𝐞𝐰𝐬

To disclose or not to disclose, that's often the question for news organizations. Some findings from what audiences say 🧵

Full preprint: osf.io/preprints/so...
October 21, 2025 at 7:07 AM
🧐 "This article was drafted with the help of an AI assistant before it was edited by a human"

What does this mean, @journalismnews.bsky.social? Does this mean that raw (interview) data was processed through a LLM?
October 20, 2025 at 11:45 AM
Building on earlier work with @michaelopgenhaffen.bsky.social et al., and inspired by work of @mikeananny.bsky.social, I distinguish between different forms of algorithmic transparency & explainability have been distinguished. [see Figure 1] /3
October 14, 2025 at 11:10 AM
📣 New Publication - 𝐍𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐀𝐈 𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐞 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐁𝐂

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐝𝐢𝐝: Conducted 22 expert interviews & a workshop in London to explore the principles-to-practices gap of responsible AI at the BBC. 🧵 with some findings 👇
October 14, 2025 at 11:03 AM
🚨The European Commission has just launched the #AIAct #ServiceDesk, an innovative service to ask tailored questions on the AI Act's implementation and check your legal obligations under the AI Act.

Includes:
🔍 Compliance Checker
🌐 Single Information Platform 👇

ai-act-service-desk.ec.europa.eu/en
October 8, 2025 at 12:11 PM
✨ Happy days - @tjthomson.bsky.social, Ryan Thomas & I are writing a book!

A few months ago, we signed a book contract with Routledge on - you've guessed it already - 𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐀𝐈 & 𝐣𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐦 - a topic that has dominated the news since 2022.

📸 below, 1st in-person meeting in Denver, Colorado.
October 6, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Belgian sports website @sporza.be is now asking ChatGPT to come up with five strategies for Evenepoel to beat Pogacar.
Why delegate such questions to AI? Imo this is just a lazy form of journalism... Showing that we should not put too much capacity to tech 👇🫠
sporza.be/nl/2025/10/0...
October 6, 2025 at 1:48 PM
“translated by DeepL,” which I guess is short for “Deeply Lazy"?
www.hln.be/buitenland/b...
October 1, 2025 at 6:25 PM
Here we go. It looks like personalized ads are very soon coming to ChatGPT. What could possibly go wrong? 🫠

AI anthropomorphism + AI feeds + personalized ads = the perfect (and highly profitable) manipulation machine. OpenAI was a nonprofit, no?
Source: x.com/OpenAI/statu...
September 29, 2025 at 8:00 PM
🧨 AI is no longer optional, exhibit ∞

From Nov 3, LinkedIn will use your data to allegedly "enhance your experience". Opt out today!
👇
www.linkedin.com/help/linkedi...
September 18, 2025 at 9:43 AM