The algorithms aren’t that smart. They’re extraordinarily dumb.
For example, on YT recently I got recommended an ancient video from 2011 where an ex-con was giving advice about how to pick up hookers. I looked at the comments and tons of them were recent and also confused about why they were recommended this video. After sifting through my own watch history, I realized I had recently watched the Austrian version of Eyes Wide Shut where the main character meets a hooker. So the algorithm just looked and saw the synopsis had the word “hooker” and found another video where the word “hooker” is used, and then sent it my way.
The algorithm is not even as smart as any given free chess app that some college kid wrote over the weekend as an exercise. If the algorithm is manipulating people and hacking their brains, that’s a problem with the wetware not the software. The remote control isn’t hacking people’s brains when they press 5 and the TV displays channel 5.
The algorithms aren’t that smart. They’re extraordinarily dumb.
For example, on YT recently I got recommended an ancient video from 2011 where an ex-con was giving advice about how to pick up hookers. I looked at the comments and tons of them were recent and also confused about why they were recommended this video. After sifting through my own watch history, I realized I had recently watched the Austrian version of Eyes Wide Shut where the main character meets a hooker. So the algorithm just looked and saw the synopsis had the word “hooker” and found another video where the word “hooker” is used, and then sent it my way.
The algorithm is not even as smart as any given free chess app that some college kid wrote over the weekend as an exercise. If the algorithm is manipulating people and hacking their brains, that’s a problem with the wetware not the software. The remote control isn’t hacking people’s brains when they press 5 and the TV displays channel 5.