Dr David Corney

Dr David Corney

@dcorney.com

Data scientist specialising in #NLProc and #ML. Currently building tools to support fact checkers at Full Fact and globally. He/him. Londoner. Parent. More at dcorney.com I left Twitter a few years back for Mastodon and now poking around here.

237 followers519 following239 posts

Dr David Corney reposted

1/ For 10 weeks, our fact checkers and data scientists asked five leading AI chatbots the same 22 questions every day: Gemini 3.1, ChatGPT, Grok, DeepSeek and Claude. None repeated the core misinformation they were tested on. But we found several points of failure 🧵

Turns out most of Shakespeare can be improved with a liberal sprinkling of "fucks."

Mark Wallace@wallaceme.bsky.social

Ok don’t let’s get carried away but I found something genuinely good on Threads.

Dr David Corney reposted

We have a new paper on AI debunking that includes a bunch of interesting data on various "epistemically suspect beliefs". Check it out!

Esther Boissin@boissinesther.bsky.social

Happy to share a new preprint with @tomcostello.bsky.social, @dgrand.bsky.social and @gordpennycook.bsky.social 🧵 "What beliefs are most debunkable?" osf.io/preprints/ps... We investigate the characteristics of the beliefs that are (or are not) influenced by counterevidence in 3,341 AI dialogues.

Dr David Corney reposted

Squirrels on suicide missions have knocked out power to Castle Rock, Colorado twice this week. Our investigation has revealed a century of squirrel attacks covered up by the pro-squirrel media.

Dr David Corney reposted

Since the Reform donations I keep thinking about charity appeals and how they're delighted to have raised a few thousand pounds. Okay, not my most original thought but the good billionaires could do if they actually wanted to is blowing my mind.

Dr David Corney reposted

Dr David Corney reposted

What you're saying when you say "DEI" when universities say "EDI" (as happens here) and vice versa. And why it actually matters. The great majority of UK (esp. British) universities use "EDI" while US universities use "DEI". Is that "just" semantic, or does it matter? A thread. 🧵1/8

ft.comHow Jason Arday’s appointment became a reckoning for CambridgeResignation of Black professor forces university to examine its approach to diversity, equality and inclusion

Dr David Corney reposted

I was on a date with a very nice looking guy. He was mean and nasty to the nerdy waiter who was serving us, obviously thinking it would make me laugh or something. I didn't laugh. I dumped him at the table and ghosted him. Been married to that nice, nerdy waiter for 6 years now.

Dr David Corney reposted

There are two wolves. One always lies. One controls the lever of trolley track. They're in a state of superposition inside a box. On the trolley are infinite monkeys at infinite typewriters going to an infinite hotel. The trolley must first travel halfway, but before that a quarterway, and so on...

Dr David Corney reposted

Replying to @dicknixon.bsky.social

Larry laid his mouse in front of the press to be photographed. Lest you ask, this is a real photograph via the Press Association.

Dr David Corney reposted

❗ Final day! We submit today. One final push – we're at 167 signatures, and would LOVE to break through the 200 signature before we send this in 🗃️ Please share, and urge alumni to share with other alumni – alumni can only express their concern if they know the petition exists

Lewis Wade 🗃️@wadehistory.bsky.social

🚨 PLEASE SHARE WIDELY 🚨 If you are an Exeter alumnus, and wish to express your horror at the proposed cuts to the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, please sign the Google Doc petition below. Not an alumnus? You can still help by signing the Exeter UCU petition at c.org/msXfsb2g5b 🗃️

Dr David Corney reposted

Covering recent elections in England, Wales and Scotland, we found AI imagery is no longer hypothetical: it's here, and it's throwing up fresh challenges. But we've also been using AI in new ways to fight back. Our editor Steve Nowottny wrote about how for @niemanlab.org 👇

niemanlab.orgFull Fact is battling AI-generated elections content with AI tools of its ownAI imagery is no longer a hypothetical factor, but at the same time, we've been able to use AI in new ways ourselves to confront the challenge.

Dr David Corney reposted

It was inevitable, wasn't it🙄 Of course the Telegraph would run with something like this👇 So let's remove some of the rose-tinted spectacles and also look at some of that data comparing 1976 with modern heat waves Because the 1976 nostalgia porn is wearing a bit thin at this stage 🧵1/23

Dr David Corney reposted

A video is being shared widely on social media with claims it shows the city of Belfast burning during recent unrest. But the clip actually shows the aftermath of a gas pipeline explosion in Russia, and has nothing to do with the disorder in Northern Ireland.

fullfact.orgVideo of Russian gas explosion falsely claimed to show Belfast unrest – Full FactA clip of a large fire is circulating on social media with false claims it depicts recent disorder in Belfast—but the footage actually shows a gas pipeline explosion in Russia.

Dr David Corney reposted

When people no longer know what information can be trusted, public debate fragments and political disengagement grows. Trust, once lost, becomes far harder to rebuild. Our new report sets out what the UK must do now to prepare for this reality.

fullfact.orgFull Fact Report 2026 – Full FactThis report assesses the precarious state of the UK’s information environment, focusing on growing uncertainty about what to trust and the serious impact this is having on democracy.

Dr David Corney reposted

Dr David Corney reposted

Incredible! Scientists receive a rare standing ovation after announcing that a new treatment can double the survival time for pancreatic cancer, the deadliest cancer which was once considered “undruggable.” When we fund and support science, we can achieve anything! (Video: Dr. Wish Dhillon)

Dr David Corney reposted

I want to mention something nice that happened to me today, in part to document, for my own sake, that good things still happen in this horrible world. It involves the London Underground, an escalator, a small boy and some rubber ducks.

"revive the assisted dying bill" is an unfortunate choice of words!

Hansard Society@hansardsociety.bsky.social

1/ What’s coming up in Parliament this week? 👇 Private Members’ Bill ballot — will one of the successful MPs revive the assisted dying bill? Select Committee hearings on: • the security of undersea cables • the role of the OBR • the Afghan data breach & superinjunction