{{AfC topic|org}}
{{AfC topic|org}}
Verity is a free news site created by the Improve the News Foundation (ITN), an apolitical American [[Nonprofit organization|non-profit]], that allows readers to compare news coverage from across the [[political spectrum]].
{{Infobox website
It was founded in 2020 in the [[United States]] by [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT]] Professor [[Max Tegmark]], the current president, and Meia Chita-Tegmark, secretary and treasurer at the Improve the News Foundation.
| name = Verity News
| logo = Verity_news_logo.png
| url = {{URL|https://www.verity.news}}
| founded = 2020
}}
”’Verity News”’ is a free website that allows readers to read and compare news coverage from across the political spectrum. It was founded in 2020 in the United States by the Improve the News Foundation (ITN), a nonprofit led by MIT Professor Max Tegmark.<ref name=”mbfc1″>[https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/improve-the-news-bias/ “Verity (improvethenews.org) – Bias and Credibility”]. Media Bias/Fact Check (MBFC). Retrieved 2025-12-27.</ref><ref name=”propublica1″>[https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/853391849 “Improve the News Foundation”]. ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer. Retrieved 2025-11-27.</ref><ref name=”about1″>[https://www.verity.news/about “About”]. Verity News. 2025-12-27. Retrieved 2025-12-27.</ref>
== Purpose ==
Verity’s stated mission is to counter misuses of [[artificial intelligence]] found in the online news environment by providing factual reporting and aiming to present all sides of the news, for free.<ref name=”:02″>{{Cite web |date=2024-12-20 |title=Verity News About |url=https://www.verity.news/about |access-date=2024-12-20 |website=Verity News}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Verity (improvethenews.org) – Bias and Credibility |url=https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/improve-the-news-bias/ |access-date=2025-07-23 |website=Media Bias/Fact Check (MBFC)}}</ref><ref name=”:0″>{{Cite web |date=2025-10-04 |title=Verity Achieves AllSides Balance Certification |url=https://www.allsides.com/sites/default/files/AllSides%20Press%20Release%20-%20Verity%20Balance%20Certification%202025.pdf |access-date=2025-10-04 |website=AllSides}}</ref>
Verity’s claimed mission is to counter the misuse of artificial intelligence in the online news environment by providing apolitical, factual reporting and presenting all sides of the news for free.<ref name=”about2″>[https://www.verity.news/about “About”]. Verity News. 2025-12-27. Retrieved 2025-12-27.</ref>
== Background ==
Verity was created by the Improve the News Foundation (ITN), a nonprofit founded in 2020 by Professor [[Max Tegmark]] at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Boston, Massachusetts. <ref name=”:02″ /> It began as an MIT research project led by Tegmark on machine learning for [https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0271947 news classification]. <ref name=”:22″>{{Cite web |date=2024-12-23 |title=Improving the News with Max Tegmark {{!}} StarTalk |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9M2CZlWq3zM |access-date=2024-12-23 |website=YouTube}}</ref><ref name=”:32″>{{Cite web |last1=Wiblin |first1=Robert |last2=Harris |first2=Keiran |date=2024-12-23 |title=#133 – Max Tegmark on how a ‘put-up-or-shut-up’ resolution led him to work on AI and algorithmic news selection |url=https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/max-tegmark-ai-and-algorithmic-news-selection/ |access-date=2024-12-23 |website=80,000 Hours}}</ref> The team initially consisted of a small group of MIT researchers but has since grown to include a broad group of international collaborators. <ref name=”:02″ />
ITN launched Verity, a free, independent digital publication that aims to empower people to learn the full, nuanced truth behind every major news story. Verity was rebranded in August 2023 to distinguish it as a news site within the Improve the News Foundation. <ref name=”:02″ /> Derived from the Latin word ”veritas”, meaning “truth.”
Verity was created by the Improve the News Foundation (ITN), a philanthropically-funded non-profit founded in 2020 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor [[Max Tegmark]] in Boston, Massachusetts.<ref name=”mbfc2″>[https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/improve-the-news-bias/ “Verity (improvethenews.org) – Bias and Credibility”]. Media Bias/Fact Check (MBFC). Retrieved 2025-12-27.</ref> ITN began as an MIT research project led by Tegmark on machine learning for news classification before being developed into a standalone foundation.<ref name=”arxiv”>D’Alonzo, Samantha; Tegmark, Max. [https://arxiv.org/abs/2109.00024 “Machine-Learning media bias”]. Cornell University. 2021-08-31. Retrieved 2025-11-27</ref><ref name=”youtube”>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9M2CZlWq3zM “Improving the News with Max Tegmark | StarTalk”]. YouTube. 2024-12-23. Retrieved 2025-12-27.</ref><ref name=”80000hours”>Wiblin, Robert; Harris, Keiran (2024-12-23). [https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/max-tegmark-ai-and-algorithmic-news-selection/ “#133 – Max Tegmark on how a ‘put-up-or-shut-up’ resolution led him to work on AI and algorithmic news selection”]. 80,000 Hours. Retrieved 2025-12-27.</ref> The foundation is primarily supported by the [[Future of Life Institute]].<ref name=”about3″>[https://www.verity.news/about “About”]. Verity News. 2025-12-27. Retrieved 2025-12-27.</ref><ref name=”causeiq”>[https://www.causeiq.com/organizations/improve-the-news-foundation,853391849/ “Improve the News Foundation”]. CauseIQ. Retrieved 2025-11-27.</ref><ref name=”propublica2″>[https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/853391849 “Improve the News Foundation”]. ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer. Retrieved 2025-11-27.</ref>
Having directly acted under the Improve the News Foundation banner between 2020 and 2023, the product was rebranded under a separate title, “Verity,” from August 2023.<ref name=”jea”>[https://jea.org/digital-media/use-verity-to-help-teach-media-literacy-skills/|”Use Verity to help teach media literacy skills”]. Journalism Education Association. 2023-11-05. Retrieved 2025-12-27.</ref><ref name=”medium”>[https://poderico.medium.com/revolutionizing-truth-how-max-tegmarks-ai-powered-verity-is-rescuing-news-from-bias-d2a15e047491 “Revolutionizing Truth: How Max Tegmark’s AI-Powered Verity is Rescuing News from Bias”]. Medium. 2025-11-05. Retrieved 2025-12-27.</ref><ref name=”about4″>[https://www.verity.news/about “About”]. Verity News. 2025-12-27. Retrieved 2025-12-27.</ref><ref name=”archive”>[https://web.archive.org/web/20201103223922/http://www.improvethenews.org/ “Improve the News”]. Improve the News Foundation. Archived from the original on 2020-11-03. Retrieved 2025-11-27.</ref>
Verity employs advanced machine learning (ML) systems to aggregate and organize news data from more than 5,000 traditional new media and independent sources. This data serves as the foundation for its News Stories, Context Stories, Deep Dives, and controversies. <ref name=”:32″ /><ref name=”:0″ />
AI agents generate first-draft narratives that are then refined by human editors who apply journalistic facts, proofreading, ethical standards, and context sensitivity. Each fact is cross-verified, neutrally presented, and grounded either in shared consensus across opposing perspectives or in original primary sources. The team verifies that all facts are either agreed upon by differing sides or substantiated by primary sources. Verity’s editorial approach also emphasizes the inclusion of the strongest and most prevalent arguments from each perspective, aiming to present a comprehensive and balanced view of current events.
Machine learning gathers articles that discuss the same topic and groups them by extracting the key facts agreed upon by all the sources; it later identifies similar topics and main narratives. Controversies are constructed via collective claims scraped from X, Meta, or YouTube to identify claims where “quotes” or opinions differ. <ref name=”:02″ /><ref name=”:32″ /> The website features an interface with customizable [https://verity.news/news-slider bias sliders] that allow readers to compare a variety of political perspectives presented in the articles, from left-wing to right-wing views, Israel-Palestine, Russia-Ukraine, and US-China, with over 22+ narratives available in [https://verity.news/glossary Verity’s glossary.] The sliders also allow readers to shift between pro-establishment and establishment-critical viewpoints, writing styles, depth, and recency. <ref name=”:02″ /> Forecasts of the most likely outcome of an event are provided through “Metaculus predictions,” according to the [[Metaculus]] prediction platform and aggregation engine. <ref name=”:32″ /> The site covers a range of topics, including politics, science, health, technology, crime, environment, and world affairs. The controversies are created through the collective opinions of political figures and celebrities, scraped to identify questions the public commonly ask, bias-split features, and deep dives, with the anticipation of VerityEd by January 2026.
In an age of polarization and algorithmic media bias, Verity’s approach reimagines journalism as an interplay between computational intelligence and human judgment, a model for what responsible AI-mediated information can look like.
== Purpose ==
Verity’s stated mission is to counter misuses of [[artificial intelligence]] found in the online news environment by providing factual reporting and aiming to present all sides of the news, for free.<ref name=”:022″>{{Cite web |date=2023-11-05 |title=Use Verity to help teach media literacy skills |url=https://jea.org/digital-media/use-verity-to-help-teach-media-literacy-skills/ |archive-date= |access-date=2025-11-18 |website=Journalism Education Association}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Verity (improvethenews.org) – Bias and Credibility |url=https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/improve-the-news-bias/ |access-date=2025-07-23 |website=Media Bias/Fact Check (MBFC)}}</ref><ref name=”:03″>{{Cite web |date=2025-10-04 |title=Verity Achieves AllSides Balance Certification |url=https://www.allsides.com/sites/default/files/AllSides%20Press%20Release%20-%20Verity%20Balance%20Certification%202025.pdf |access-date=2025-10-04 |website=AllSides}}</ref>
Verity was created by the Improve the News Foundation (ITN), a nonprofit founded in 2020 by [https://physics.mit.edu/faculty/max-tegmark/ Massachusetts Institute of Technology] Professor [[Max Tegmark]] in Boston, Massachusetts.<ref name=”:022″>{{Cite web |date=2024-12-20 |title=Verity News About |url=https://www.verity.news/about |access-date=2024-12-20 |website=Verity News}}</ref> It began as an MIT research project led by Tegmark on machine learning for news classification. <ref name=”:222″>{{Cite web |date=2024-12-23 |title=Improving the News with Max Tegmark {{!}} StarTalk |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9M2CZlWq3zM |access-date=2024-12-23 |website=YouTube}}</ref><ref name=”:322″>{{Cite web |last1=Wiblin |first1=Robert |last2=Harris |first2=Keiran |date=2024-12-23 |title=#133 – Max Tegmark on how a ‘put-up-or-shut-up’ resolution led him to work on AI and algorithmic news selection |url=https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/max-tegmark-ai-and-algorithmic-news-selection/ |access-date=2024-12-23 |website=80,000 Hours}}</ref> The team initially consisted of a small group of MIT researchers but has since grown to include a broad group of international collaborators on all continents except Antarctica. <ref name=”:022″>{{Cite web |date=2024-12-20 |title=Verity News About |url=https://www.verity.news/about |access-date=2024-12-20 |website=Verity News}}</ref>
ITN launched Verity, a free, independent digital publication that aims to empower people to learn the full, nuanced truth behind every major news story. Verity was rebranded in August 2023 to distinguish it as a news site within the Improve the News Foundation.<ref name=”:022″>{{Cite web |date=2024-12-20 |title=Verity News About |url=https://www.verity.news/about |access-date=2024-12-20 |website=Verity News}}</ref>
[https://verity.news/about Improve the News Foundation] is philanthropically funded and an independent nonprofit based in the U.S. The service is completely free and ad-free, so a user will never be asked for payment details or directly exposed to third-party ads. To sign up is free by email if a user wants to access the daily [https://verity.news/newsletter Verity newsletter.] ITN relies solely on the generosity of donors, primarily the [[Future of Life Institute]].
On May 21, 2025, Verity was awarded at the [https://shortyawards.com/17th/winners/ 17th Annual Shorty Awards in New York City for Other Platform Presence], competing against Spotify, Kraft Heinz, Warner Bros. Pictures, and AT&T Business.
On August 8, 2025, Verity was given a -0.02 center bias rating by [[AllSides]]. <ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-08-07 |title=Verity |url=https://www.allsides.com/news-source/verity-media-bias |access-date=2025-08-07 |website=AllSides}}</ref> The AllSides model uses a multi-partisan panel (6-9 reviewers from left, center, and right), examining a news outlet’s content (recent articles, homepage, headlines, and imagery) and assigns a numerical bias rating from -6 to +6 (-6 = far left, +6 = far right). Over [https://www.allsides.com/news-source/verity-media-bias 2,400 media bias] ratings have been conducted by blind surveys across America and a panel analysis of experts to obtain the AllSides Media Bias rating. In Verity’s media bias rating, over 850 Americans choose Verity as a 0-balanced news source. The expert panel and editorial review, along with the citizen survey, gave Verity a -0.33 center bias rating for its digital news. This is considered “the most balanced rating” ever recorded in American news.
* Audience Honor award winner in the “Other Platform Presence” category for the 17th Annual Shorty Awards 2025.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-06-03 |title=17th Annual Shorty Awards Winners |url=https://shortyawards.com/17th/winners/ |url-status= |archive-url= |access-date=2025-06-03 |website=The Shorty Awards}}</ref>
* Finalist in the “Other Platform Presence” category for the 17th Annual Shorty Awards 2025.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-11-05 |title=Revolutionizing Truth: How Max Tegmark’s AI-Powered Verity is Rescuing News from Bias |url=https://poderico.medium.com/revolutionizing-truth-how-max-tegmarks-ai-powered-verity-is-rescuing-news-from-bias-d2a15e047491 |url-status= |access-date=2025-11-18 |website=Medium}}</ref>
In May 2025, Verity received the Audience Honor at the 17th Annual Shorty Awards in New York City for Other Platform Presence.<ref name=”shorty”>[https://shortyawards.com/17th/verity-discover-the-complete-and-nuanced-truth-1 “17th Annual Shorty Awards Winners”]. The Shorty Awards. 2025-06-03. Retrieved 2025-12-27.</ref>
In July 2025, [[AllSides]] conducted a bias audit of Verity.<ref name=”allsides1″>[https://www.allsides.com/blind-survey/rating-bias-verity-tangle-free-press “Rating the Bias of Verity, Tangle, and The Free Press”]. AllSides. Retrieved 2025-11-27.</ref> Following review by an editorial panel and blind testing of 859 Americans, AllSides determined Verity’s bias rating to be -0.02 on a -6 to +6 spectrum, and awarded Verity AllSides Balance Certification.<ref name=”allsides2″>[https://www.allsides.com/news-source/verity-media-bias?rate=PFQCCp7XyXWA2HHRI9DVye3VI5TFcOwOeMBIVTXhu6E “Verity”]. AllSides. 2025-08-07. Retrieved 2025-12-27.</ref>
Verity employs machine learning (ML) systems to aggregate and organize news data, which is then applied to website features such as news articles, bias identification, and controversies.<ref name=”about5″>[https://www.verity.news/about “About”]. Verity News. 2025-12-27. Retrieved 2025-12-27.</ref><ref name=”jea2″>[https://jea.org/digital-media/use-verity-to-help-teach-media-literacy-skills/ “Use Verity to help teach media literacy skills”]. Journalism Education Association. 2023-11-05. Retrieved 2025-12-27.</ref>
===News Articles===
Verity contains three types of news articles: Daily Stories, Context Stories, and Deep Dives. Daily and Context Stories contain five to six “Fact” blocks, followed by at least two opposing “Narratives” that present multiple perspectives across the political spectrum. Deep Dives, meanwhile, contain longer explanatory text accompanied by multiple “Narratives” throughout. Articles may also include an event prediction following ITN’s partnership with [[Metaculus]].<ref>[https://www.verity.news/ “Verity News”]. Verity News. Retrieved 2025-11-27.</ref><ref>[https://www.verity.news/glossary “Glossary”]. Verity News. Retrieved 2025-11-27.</ref><ref name=”metaculus”>[https://www.metaculus.com/tournament/1724/ “Improve the News AI Forecasting Tournament”]. Metaculus. Retrieved 2025-11-27.</ref>
===Bias Identification===
Verity charts the perceived bias of sources on a five-by-five grid, with a Left/Right spectrum (horizontal) and a Pro-Establishment/Establishment-Critical spectrum (vertical). This data is then available to view for applicable sources on each story and is also used within a news aggregator filter for third-party articles.<ref>[https://www.verity.news/story/2025/uk-chancellor-reeves-raises-b-in-taxes-at-budget “UK Chancellor Reeves raises £40B in taxes at budget”]. Verity News. 2025. Retrieved 2025-11-27.</ref><ref>[https://www.verity.news/news-slider “News Slider”]. Verity News. Retrieved 2025-11-27.</ref>
===Controversies===
Verity’s “Controversies” section seeks to map where individuals or organizations stand on a particular subject. Claims on a verifiable question are collected and placed on a single-axis spectrum of “Unlikely” to “Likely,” with data later collected on the accuracy of these predictions.<ref>[https://www.verity.news/controversies “Controversies”]. Verity News. Retrieved 2025-11-27.</ref>
*Audience Honour award winner in the “Other Platform Presence” category for the 17th Annual Shorty Awards 2025.
*AllSides Balance Certification, July 2025.
*[[Max Tegmark]]
== References ==
== References ==
<!– Inline citations added to your article will automatically display here. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:REFB for instructions on how to add citations. –>
<!– Inline citations added to your article will automatically display here. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:REFB for instructions on how to add citations. –>
Where to get help
Improving your odds of a speedy review To improve your odds of a faster review, tag your draft with relevant WikiProject tags using the button below. This will let reviewers know a new draft has been submitted in their area of interest. For instance, if you wrote about a female astronomer, you would want to add the Biography, Astronomy, and Women scientists tags.
|
 |
Comment: All the sources are Tegmark talking about his own creation. Close primary sources do not establish notability. We want to see what entirely independent (and reliable) third parties have said about this subject. DoubleGrazing (talk) 07:30, 23 December 2024 (UTC)
Non-profit news website
Verity News is a free website that allows readers to read and compare news coverage from across the political spectrum. It was founded in 2020 in the United States by the Improve the News Foundation (ITN), a nonprofit led by MIT Professor Max Tegmark.[1][2][3]
Verity’s claimed mission is to counter the misuse of artificial intelligence in the online news environment by providing apolitical, factual reporting and presenting all sides of the news for free.[4]
Verity was created by the Improve the News Foundation (ITN), a philanthropically-funded non-profit founded in 2020 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Max Tegmark in Boston, Massachusetts.[5] ITN began as an MIT research project led by Tegmark on machine learning for news classification before being developed into a standalone foundation.[6][7][8] The foundation is primarily supported by the Future of Life Institute.[9][10][11]
Having directly acted under the Improve the News Foundation banner between 2020 and 2023, the product was rebranded under a separate title, “Verity,” from August 2023.[12][13][14][15]
In May 2025, Verity received the Audience Honor at the 17th Annual Shorty Awards in New York City for Other Platform Presence.[16]
In July 2025, AllSides conducted a bias audit of Verity.[17] Following review by an editorial panel and blind testing of 859 Americans, AllSides determined Verity’s bias rating to be -0.02 on a -6 to +6 spectrum, and awarded Verity AllSides Balance Certification.[18]
Verity employs machine learning (ML) systems to aggregate and organize news data, which is then applied to website features such as news articles, bias identification, and controversies.[19][20]
Verity contains three types of news articles: Daily Stories, Context Stories, and Deep Dives. Daily and Context Stories contain five to six “Fact” blocks, followed by at least two opposing “Narratives” that present multiple perspectives across the political spectrum. Deep Dives, meanwhile, contain longer explanatory text accompanied by multiple “Narratives” throughout. Articles may also include an event prediction following ITN’s partnership with Metaculus.[21][22][23]
Bias Identification
[edit]
Verity charts the perceived bias of sources on a five-by-five grid, with a Left/Right spectrum (horizontal) and a Pro-Establishment/Establishment-Critical spectrum (vertical). This data is then available to view for applicable sources on each story and is also used within a news aggregator filter for third-party articles.[24][25]
Verity’s “Controversies” section seeks to map where individuals or organizations stand on a particular subject. Claims on a verifiable question are collected and placed on a single-axis spectrum of “Unlikely” to “Likely,” with data later collected on the accuracy of these predictions.[26]
- Audience Honour award winner in the “Other Platform Presence” category for the 17th Annual Shorty Awards 2025.
- AllSides Balance Certification, July 2025.
