#9: Fighting misinformation and quitting jobs in the pandemic to build a company - Jenny Romano

Our decision making heavily depends on the information we consume. Should I get vaccinated or not? Is climate change real or a hoax? Is quinoa as healthy as advertised (seriously, is it)?

With time, our worldview crystallises and it seems nearly impossible to break free from our personal echo chambers that often offer so much comfort.

Jenny Romano, co-founder and CEO of The Newsroom, elaborates how AI can help to fight misinformation, promote plurality and bring people with polar views to a common ground.

Jenny and her Co-Founder Pedro Pamplona Henriques spent years discussing journalism and misinformation. In December 2020 - with the pandemic in full sway - they decided that it was time to act. This is when The Newsroom was born, a startup on a mission to fight misinformation and promote plurality online. The Newsroom solutions - a mobile application and browser extension - promise to revolutionise news reading through bite-sized news, historical context and diversity of thought.

The technology behind The Newsroom

The founders took a multidisciplinary approach, speaking to news readers, technologists, behavioural psychologists as well as experts on ethical journalism. Out of this research an algorithm was developed that assesses and categorises news articles in a traffic light system. Green, yellow and red flags indicate the level of trustworthiness of the news that readers consume. This is accompanied by a breakdown of the assessment criteria for greater transparency. Jenny goes into detail about the five main criteria an informed reader should look out for.

From employment to entrepreneurship - A leap of faith or insanity?

In times of turmoil, most crave security. Or perhaps this is the best time for a new beginning? We ask about the founders’ reasons for leaving well-paid jobs at Google and LinkedIn amidst the pandemic to found a company. As Jenny explains, the pandemic - and the wave of misinformation that came with it - was in fact the right moment to develop tools that would help counter fake news.

Building a team on a budget

As a founder you start as a one-person show juggling many roles at once, often beyond one’s area of expertise. Jenny tells us how she learnt to be comfortable outside her comfort zone. When it comes to the hiring process, we speak about how having a strong cause can be a powerful magnet to attract and retain talent.