What do the extreme events of hatred, violence and polarization in the world in recent years have in common? In The Chaos Machine, Max Fisher has the categorical answer: Social Media has reprogrammed our minds and our world. Through an extensive analysis with experts in the field, researchers and activists from around the world, he presents a compelling argument about the tools we use so much in our daily lives. We are being manipulated.
This book left me shocked at many points - as a tech person, I followed many of the stories described here as they happened and have always been aware of the impact that the polarization of discourse on the internet has had on our country. Now, having this collected and detailed, demonstrating, example after example, how we allow big tech companies to establish their dominance over our daily lives, made me rethink a lot about the use of social media.
The Algorithm
Who's afraid of artificial intelligence? As our understanding of the impact of AI on the world grows, we are faced with the indiscriminate use of machine learning algorithms with the sole purpose of optimizing time on platforms, and in doing so, without any moral radar, we are subject to the greatest human manipulation in history. At what cost? Our lives.
Nick Bostrom describes this situation in an illustrative way:
Imagine you have an AI whose sole purpose is to create as many paperclips as possible. It might quickly decide that the best way to produce more is to remove humans from production, preventing it from being shut down and making more paperclips. The world in which this algorithm exists is a world where there are plenty of paperclips but no humans.
The fundamental problem with the use of artificial intelligence algorithms can be determined by the fact that those who control these algorithms can directly impact people's lives in terrible ways, and without these companies being held accountable for the harm caused.
YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have a business model based on maximizing time on the platform. The only metric that matters is how much time is spent online, so that they can sell more ads - and for years these platforms have been optimizing their search/video suggestion mechanisms to ensure that we are always connected to their sites. These platforms were created by experts in human attention to be perfect in what is expected: to hook their users as much as possible, so that they are always hooked - and we are all influenced by this.
The article Moral Outrage in the Digital Age presents in a summarized way what we already know about social media: the more inflammatory the content, the more it goes viral - and the platforms know this, and profit from our easy ability to be outraged. Knowing this, these companies create content recommendation mechanisms that will always favor the most controversial, the most absurd, creating a vicious cycle that can kidnap us to dark places . This is why after watching a video about working out at the gym, you may eventually be introduced to videos about how feminism is working with a secret society to completely eliminate men from the earth .
Despite ample evidence of the impact of social media on a wide range of acts of violence , companies have done little to prevent more incidents like the one in Sri Lanka from happening. School bombings, genocide, conspiracy theories, online hate - all are being magnified by social media, without the companies being held accountable.
I highly recommend the book.
Comments