Artificial-intelligence-based search company Seekr is partnering with audio ad agency Oxford Road to release a first-of-its-kind “Civility Score” for podcasts. The Civility Score leverages AI to objectively measure ad hominem attacks in leading podcasts – a significant contributor to societal polarization and aggression.
Brands can use this detailed scoring to inform their media planning, setting tolerance levels that maintain brand integrity and minimize exposure to potentially damaging content. The Civility Score ranks podcasts from low to high civility based on the degree of personal attack in each show, taking into account context and nuance when an attack is detected.
Seekr will also offer metrics on the amount and nature of personal attacks found in evaluated show content per hour, giving brands detailed data to speed up the evaluation process. The Civility Score will initially focus on podcasts and will be launched at the Chief Audio Officer Summit. However, there are plans to expand its scope to cover all forms of media in the future.
This is not Seekr’s first foray into morality-centric content tracking. In March, podcast platform PodcastOne paired with Seekr to judge what content is safe for advertisers and the best place to put ads in an episode.
Seekr Technologies CEO Pat Condo stated that the Civility Score gives brands an “extraordinarily effective way to protect themselves from high-risk content,” going beyond traditional brand safety and suitability frameworks to address societal polarization.
Oxford Road CEO and Founder Dan Granger said, “What the industry needs most is one metric that transcends subjectivity and promotes a value around which we can all align: respect for others. The strength of the Civility Score is its simplicity, as all brands, consumers, and creators can align around this expression of the Golden Rule. Now, we can reward the most responsible voices, rather than those that are simply the loudest.”
