Page 14 of Late Nights

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Page 14 of Late Nights

"Thanks for coming." He gave each one of them a friendly smile. "I ordered drinks and sandwiches for everyone. I hope turkey clubs are okay?"

"Perfect," Lisa said, while Parker and Cheryl nodded in agreement.

"So." Cheryl leaned forward. "What amazing ideas do you have for us to tear apart today?"

Brandon chuckled. These kids were not going to pull their punches, which was exactly why he wanted their input.

Wonder arrived with their sandwiches and drinks, and they began eating. Brandon used the pause to organize his thoughts.

"Alright," he said once they'd made some progress with their food. "Here's what I'm thinking for InstaTock. Instead of just presenting facts and asking users to verify them, we create games and scenarios?—"

"Like role-playing games?" Cheryl interrupted, her eyes lighting up.

"Similar, yes. But with real-world applications." He pulled out his tablet and opened his notes. "For example, one scenario might involve a user seeing a viral post about a new health supplement. They'd have to navigate through various information sources, identify red flags, and make decisions about what to believe."

"Boring," Parker declared around a mouthful of sandwich.

"What if instead of health supplements, it was about something more relevant?" Lisa suggested. "Like dating app scams?"

"That's a great idea, but I need a way to engage people in all topics, not just the latest thing." Brandon made a note of what she'd suggested. "Still, what other topics would engage your age group?"

The teenagers exchanged looks before launching into a rapid-fire list:

"Cryptocurrency schemes?—"

"Fake designer goods?—"

"College admission scams?—"

"Those stupid get-rich-quick YouTube gurus?—"

Brandon's fingers flew across the tablet, trying to keep up. "Those are all great examples. But how do we make investigating them fun rather than feeling like homework?"

"Points system and prizes," Parker said immediately. "Like, you get points for identifying different types of manipulation tactics."

"And badges," Cheryl added. "People love collecting badges."

"What about team challenges?" Lisa suggested. "Like, you and your friends work together to investigate something, and you get to pool your knowledge."

Brandon nodded, continuing to type. This was exactly the kind of insight he needed. "What about the format? Should it be text-based, video, interactive?—"

"All of it," Cheryl said. "Different people learn differently. Plus, it's more engaging if you mix it up."

"And it needs to be fast paced," Parker added. "No one wants to spend twenty minutes researching a thing. Maybe there should be a vetted resource site where people could find answers without putting too much effort into it."

"That's dangerous." Brandon put his tablet down. "When there is one resource that everyone is told to trust, it can be easily manipulated. The whole idea is to teach young people how to mine for truth."

Parker's eyes lit up. "Like mining for crypto. No one can hack the blockchain, or rather I should say that it's extremely difficult to do. What if there was a way to do the same with data? An AI could be trained to seek the impartial truth, and the code to train it would be available for everyone to see but not to manipulate. Still, anyone who can find holes in artificial intelligence programming and prove that it is not impartial can post it and have others check the validity of the claim. As long as the blockchain's AI lack of bias remains uncontested, it will be the best source of truth that is easily accessible and incorruptible."

Brandon tried to find fault in Parker's logic, but the idea was so brilliant that the only difficulty he could see in creating such a resource was the computing power required. He was no expert on AI or the blockchain, but he knew that both required massive infrastructure. Bitcoin miners were incentivized by the Bitcoin they produced, but that would not be the case with an information blockchain as Parker was proposing.

"That's genius, Parker," Cheryl said. "Now you just need to figure out how to implement your brilliant idea."

He chuckled and lifted his hand in the air. "I'm the idea man. Someone else will need to figure out the how."

"I'll run it by William," Brandon said. "If that can be done, it would be a game changer. But we still need to come up with more ideas for engaging young people."

"Challenges," Lisa agreed. "Like those 'spot the difference' games, but instead it's 'spot the manipulation.' Everyone wants to prove that they are smart."


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