![We're building an artificial intelligence-powered dystopia, one click at a time, says technosociologist Zeynep Tufecki. In an eye-opening talk, she details how the same algorithms companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon use to get you to click on ads are also used to organize your access to political and social information. And the machines aren't even the real threat. What we need to understand is how the powerful might use AI to control us -- and what we can do in response.](/img/lead/were-building-a-dystopia-just-to-make-people-click-on-ads-ted.webp)
We're building a dystopia just to make people click on ads (TED)
We're building an artificial intelligence-powered dystopia, one click at a time, says technosociologist Zeynep Tufecki. In an eye-opening talk, she details how the same algorithms companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon use to get you to click on ads are also used to organize your access to political and social information. And the machines aren't even the real threat. What we need to understand is how the powerful might use AI to control us -- and what we can do in response.
![This is software to save lives. Facebook’s new “proactive detection” artificial intelligence technology will scan all posts for patterns of suicidal thoughts, and when necessary send mental health resources to the user at risk or their friends, or contact local first-responders. By using AI to flag worrisome posts to human moderators instead of waiting for user reports, Facebook can decrease how long it takes to send help.](/img/lead/facebook-rolls-out-ai-to-detect-suicidal-posts-before-theyre-reported.webp)
Facebook rolls out AI to detect suicidal posts before they’re reported
This is software to save lives. Facebook’s new “proactive detection” artificial intelligence technology will scan all posts for patterns of suicidal thoughts, and when necessary send mental health resources to the user at risk or their friends, or contact local first-responders. By using AI to flag worrisome posts to human moderators instead of waiting for user reports, Facebook can decrease how long it takes to send help.
![Advances in artificial intelligence and robotics will have significant implications for evolving economic systems.](/img/lead/could-artificial-intelligence-create-an-unemployment-crisis.webp)
Could Artificial Intelligence Create an Unemployment Crisis?
Advances in artificial intelligence and robotics will have significant implications for evolving economic systems.
![Facebook's expectations about users' social lives can be very different from users' own.](/img/lead/are-your-facebook-friends-stressing-you-out-yes.webp)
Are Your Facebook Friends Stressing You Out? (Yes)
Facebook's expectations about users' social lives can be very different from users' own.
![You just went to the Google home page. Simple, isn't it? What just actually happened?](/img/lead/dizzying-but-invisible-depth.webp)
Dizzying but invisible depth
You just went to the Google home page. Simple, isn't it? What just actually happened?
![Zuckerberg needs to stop courting Beijing and start paying attention to the countries where Facebook matters.](/img/lead/facebook-cant-cope-with-the-world-its-created.webp)
Facebook Can’t Cope With the World It’s Created
Zuckerberg needs to stop courting Beijing and start paying attention to the countries where Facebook matters.
![We analysed existing guidance on ethics and papers that used data of illicit origin to see what issues researchers are encouraged to discuss and what issues they did discuss. We find wide variation in current practice. We encourage researchers using data of illicit origin to include an ethics section in their paper: to explain why the work was ethical so that the research community can learn from the work.](/img/lead/ethical-issues-in-research-using-datasets-of-illicit-origin.webp)
Ethical issues in research using datasets of illicit origin
We analysed existing guidance on ethics and papers that used data of illicit origin to see what issues researchers are encouraged to discuss and what issues they did discuss. We find wide variation in current practice. We encourage researchers using data of illicit origin to include an ethics section in their paper: to explain why the work was ethical so that the research community can learn from the work.
![It seems increasingly likely that our society will one day view our infatuation with Twitter, Facebook, and the like as a passing, often destructive fad.](/img/lead/the-end-of-the-social-era-cant-come-soon-enough.webp)
The End of the Social Era Can’t Come Soon Enough
It seems increasingly likely that our society will one day view our infatuation with Twitter, Facebook, and the like as a passing, often destructive fad.
![Governments have legitimate reasons to seek user data beyond their territorial reach, and privacy advocates ignore that need at their peril.](/img/lead/dark-clouds-over-the-internet.webp)
Dark Clouds Over the Internet
Governments have legitimate reasons to seek user data beyond their territorial reach, and privacy advocates ignore that need at their peril.
![Amazon's success lies in worker exploitation and intrusions into consumers’ private lives.](/img/lead/the-amazonization-of-everything.webp)
The Amazonization of Everything
Amazon's success lies in worker exploitation and intrusions into consumers’ private lives.
![A new technology—virtual embodiment—challenges our understanding of who and what we are.](/img/lead/are-we-already-living-in-virtual-reality.webp)
Are We Already Living in Virtual Reality?
A new technology—virtual embodiment—challenges our understanding of who and what we are.
![Amazon’s success is partly fueled by exploitative practices. For those working in its fulfillment centers, conditions resemble a Dickensian nightmare. A recent piece from Business Insider UK’s Shona Ghosh puts this into perspective, and tells stories of low-wage warehouse workers being forced to urinate into bottles rather than take normal work breaks.](/img/lead/its-time-to-boycott-amazon.webp)
It’s time to boycott Amazon
Amazon’s success is partly fueled by exploitative practices. For those working in its fulfillment centers, conditions resemble a Dickensian nightmare. A recent piece from Business Insider UK’s Shona Ghosh puts this into perspective, and tells stories of low-wage warehouse workers being forced to urinate into bottles rather than take normal work breaks.
![I summarize all this because loneliness and social isolation are the problem that undergird many of our other problems. More and more Americans are socially poor. And yet it is very hard for the socially wealthy to even see this fact. It is the very nature of loneliness and social isolation to be invisible. We talk as if the lonely don’t exist.](/img/lead/the-blindness-of-social-wealth.webp)
The Blindness of Social Wealth
I summarize all this because loneliness and social isolation are the problem that undergird many of our other problems. More and more Americans are socially poor. And yet it is very hard for the socially wealthy to even see this fact. It is the very nature of loneliness and social isolation to be invisible. We talk as if the lonely don’t exist.
![A bold experiment by the One Laptop Per Child organization has shown “encouraging” results.](/img/lead/given-tablets-but-no-teachers-ethiopian-children-teach-themselves.webp)
Given Tablets but No Teachers, Ethiopian Children Teach Themselves
A bold experiment by the One Laptop Per Child organization has shown “encouraging” results.
![From the bestselling author of the acclaimed Chaos and Genius comes a thoughtful and provocative exploration of the big ideas of the modern era: Information, communication, and information theory.](/img/lead/the-information-a-history-a-theory-a-flood.webp)
The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood
From the bestselling author of the acclaimed Chaos and Genius comes a thoughtful and provocative exploration of the big ideas of the modern era: Information, communication, and information theory.
![This is also what the internet is becoming: a dark forest](/img/lead/the-dark-forest-theory-of-the-internet.webp)
The Dark Forest Theory of the Internet
This is also what the internet is becoming: a dark forest
![Some wireless internet users have been setting their network names to send snide messages to their neighbours. Why?](/img/lead/the-rise-of-passive-aggressive-wi-fi-names.webp)
The rise of passive-aggressive wi-fi names
Some wireless internet users have been setting their network names to send snide messages to their neighbours. Why?
![Web forums are full of neurotics. They breed neuroticism and make it go viral. Learn how and why this happens.](/img/lead/how-web-forums-make-neuroticism-viral.webp)
How Web Forums Make Neuroticism Viral
Web forums are full of neurotics. They breed neuroticism and make it go viral. Learn how and why this happens.
![Silicon Valley fails to take into account the human consequences of its technological wizardry. // Silicon Valley seems to have lost a bit of its verve since the Presidential election. The streets of San Francisco—spiritually part of the Valley—feel less crowded. Coffee-shop conversations are hushed. Everything feels a little muted, an eerie quiet broken by chants of protesters. It even seems as if there are more parking spots. Technology leaders, their employees, and those who make up the entire technology ecosystem seem to have been shaken up and shocked by the election of Donald Trump.](/img/lead/silicon-valley-has-an-empathy-vacuum.webp)
Silicon Valley Has an Empathy Vacuum
Silicon Valley fails to take into account the human consequences of its technological wizardry. // Silicon Valley seems to have lost a bit of its verve since the Presidential election. The streets of San Francisco—spiritually part of the Valley—feel less crowded. Coffee-shop conversations are hushed. Everything feels a little muted, an eerie quiet broken by chants of protesters. It even seems as if there are more parking spots. Technology leaders, their employees, and those who make up the entire technology ecosystem seem to have been shaken up and shocked by the election of Donald Trump.
![“I just hate to be pushed around by some @#$%^& machine.” – Ken Thompson // This is my exit interview from social media. Some of these “services” I abandoned years ago. Others I am still struggling to avoid.](/img/lead/you-will-not-understand-this.webp)
You Will not Understand This
“I just hate to be pushed around by some @#$%^& machine.” – Ken Thompson // This is my exit interview from social media. Some of these “services” I abandoned years ago. Others I am still struggling to avoid.
![This is part of a hypothesis that pleasure seeking behaviors physiologically block your brains ability to be content. There is modern science and ancient wisdom that seem to support this and anecdotally I concur.](/img/lead/dumber-phone.webp)
Dumber Phone
This is part of a hypothesis that pleasure seeking behaviors physiologically block your brains ability to be content. There is modern science and ancient wisdom that seem to support this and anecdotally I concur.
![When Mark Zuckerberg addressed Facebook investors last week, he outlined a goal that sounded more like a philosophical quest than a business plan: A major priority for Facebook, he said, was “understanding the world.”](/img/lead/facebook-hasnt-even-begun-to-exploit-everything-it-knows-about-you.webp)
Facebook Hasn't Even Begun To Exploit Everything It Knows About You
When Mark Zuckerberg addressed Facebook investors last week, he outlined a goal that sounded more like a philosophical quest than a business plan: A major priority for Facebook, he said, was “understanding the world.”
![Security flaws in software can be tough to find. Purposefully planted ones—hidden backdoors created by spies or saboteurs—are often even stealthier. Now imagine a backdoor planted not in an application, or deep in an operating system, but even deeper, in the hardware of the processor that runs a computer. And now imagine that silicon backdoor is invisible not only to the computer’s software, but even to the chip’s designer, who has no idea that it was added by the chip’s manufacturer, likely in some farflung Chinese factory. And that it’s a single component hidden among hundreds of millions or billions. And that each one of those components is less than a thousandth of the width of a human hair.](/img/lead/this-demonically-clever-backdoor-hides-in-a-tiny-slice-of-a-computer-chip.webp)
This ‘Demonically Clever’ Backdoor Hides In a Tiny Slice of a Computer Chip
Security flaws in software can be tough to find. Purposefully planted ones—hidden backdoors created by spies or saboteurs—are often even stealthier. Now imagine a backdoor planted not in an application, or deep in an operating system, but even deeper, in the hardware of the processor that runs a computer. And now imagine that silicon backdoor is invisible not only to the computer’s software, but even to the chip’s designer, who has no idea that it was added by the chip’s manufacturer, likely in some farflung Chinese factory. And that it’s a single component hidden among hundreds of millions or billions. And that each one of those components is less than a thousandth of the width of a human hair.
![How the attention economy is subverting our decision-making and our democracy. // It’s not that James Williams, a doctoral candidate at the Oxford Internet Institute’s Digital Ethics Lab (motto: “Every Bit as Good”), had a “God, what I have I done?” moment during his time at Google. But it did occur to him that something had gone awry.](/img/lead/modern-media-is-a-dos-attack-on-your-free-will.webp)
Modern Media is a DoS Attack on Your Free Will
How the attention economy is subverting our decision-making and our democracy. // It’s not that James Williams, a doctoral candidate at the Oxford Internet Institute’s Digital Ethics Lab (motto: “Every Bit as Good”), had a “God, what I have I done?” moment during his time at Google. But it did occur to him that something had gone awry.
![Fear the machines... and capitalism.](/img/lead/the-rise-of-the-machines-why-automation-is-different-this-time.webp)
The Rise of the Machines Why Automation is Different this Time
Fear the machines... and capitalism.
![Researchers funded by the US military are developing appliances to record neural activity and automatically stimulate the brain to treat mental illness.](/img/lead/ai-controlled-brain-implants-for-mood-disorders-tested-in-people.webp)
AI-controlled brain implants for mood disorders tested in people
Researchers funded by the US military are developing appliances to record neural activity and automatically stimulate the brain to treat mental illness.
![I’ve met dots that existed only to inform me of the existence of other dots, new dots, dots with almost no meaning at all.](/img/lead/how-tiny-red-dots-took-over-your-life.webp)
How Tiny Red Dots Took Over Your Life
I’ve met dots that existed only to inform me of the existence of other dots, new dots, dots with almost no meaning at all.
![Uber self-driving vehicle struck and killed woman Sunday night in Tempe](/img/lead/first-death-by-robot-car.webp)
First death by robot car
Uber self-driving vehicle struck and killed woman Sunday night in Tempe
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