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The problems you outline do not need AI to exist; see Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc for those phenomenons at play in the wild. And so the answer to your ques

by GuiA 8y ago

The problems you outline do not need AI to exist; see Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc for those phenomenons at play in the wild. And so the answer to your questions are clear: there are people who, for a paycheck big enough, a title fancy enough, are willing to completely ignore the harmful effects that their vision and execution imposes on communities, individuals, democracies. The interesting problems in tech now include how to build tools and systems to make people aware of how they are being messed with, and fight back.

eropple 8y ago
Of course--but those companies use AI specifically to, at scales previously impossible, directly personalize (and, frankly, entrap) people by exploiting bugs in the human firmware. To borrow a quote from a friend, "every time a social network abandons the chronological timeline, that's the moment they added AI." And I would like his justification for making the world a worse place.
- tilmonedwards 8y ago
  Said friend checking in here. Spend some time watching "how to be a youtuber" youtube and it'll make the role of AI and ML much more obvious in the content you consume. Content creators have to appeal to an algorithmic curator in order to be placed in front of an audience. And that algorithm is constantly trying out new genres and creators on its audience. This technology is VERY good at showing you the things you want to see. [1] "Like and subscribe" isn't a meme, they're positive signals to an AI curator. Boundless isn't developing new technology, it's applying this same attention harvesting technology outside the content industry. I have no doubt that Boundless will have great success, because the demand side of the attention market is very strong. [1] This is how I ended up in "how to be a youtuber" youtube in the first place, for the record.
  - tdaltonc 8y ago
    > I have no doubt that Boundless will have great success, because the demand side of the attention market is very strong. Can I quote you in our investor pitch deck?
    - eropple 8y ago
      Holy shit, dude. This is shameful.
    - tilmonedwards 8y ago
      No
  - tdaltonc 8y ago
    I could not agree more -- The YouTube ranking algo desperately needs reform to better respect human dignity.

by GuiA 8y ago

eropple 8y ago

Of course--but those companies use AI specifically to, at scales previously impossible, directly personalize (and, frankly, entrap) people by exploiting bugs in the human firmware. To borrow a quote from a friend, "every time a social network abandons the chronological timeline, that's the moment they added AI." And I would like his justification for making the world a worse place.

tilmonedwards 8y ago
Said friend checking in here. Spend some time watching "how to be a youtuber" youtube and it'll make the role of AI and ML much more obvious in the content you consume. Content creators have to appeal to an algorithmic curator in order to be placed in front of an audience. And that algorithm is constantly trying out new genres and creators on its audience. This technology is VERY good at showing you the things you want to see. [1] "Like and subscribe" isn't a meme, they're positive signals to an AI curator. Boundless isn't developing new technology, it's applying this same attention harvesting technology outside the content industry. I have no doubt that Boundless will have great success, because the demand side of the attention market is very strong. [1] This is how I ended up in "how to be a youtuber" youtube in the first place, for the record.
- tdaltonc 8y ago
  > I have no doubt that Boundless will have great success, because the demand side of the attention market is very strong. Can I quote you in our investor pitch deck?
  - eropple 8y ago
    Holy shit, dude. This is shameful.
  - tilmonedwards 8y ago
    No
- tdaltonc 8y ago
  I could not agree more -- The YouTube ranking algo desperately needs reform to better respect human dignity.