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Does that actually work? If they create some complex AI and then show us the trained model, it doesn't really give much insight into the AI doing the recommend

Does that actually work? If they create some complex AI and then show us the trained model, it doesn't really give much insight into the AI doing the recommendation. You could potentially test certain articles to see if it is recommended, but reverse engineering how the AI recommends it would be far more time consuming than updating the AI. As such Facebook would just need to regularly update the AI faster than researchers can determine how it works to hide how their code works. Older versions of the AI would eventually be cracked open (as much as a large matrix of numbers representing a neural network could be), but between it being a trained model with a bunch of numbers and Facebook having a never version I think they'll be able to hide behind "oops there was a problem, but don't worry our training has made the model much better now".

devonkim 6y ago
It would make it clear or not whether the site tries at all to restrict certain recommendations like harmful content at least and the model would be different and less subject to top-down rules / policies like recommending government propaganda sites over independent sources. It could be used in later, better worded and targeted subpoenas for how said filtering and censoring works. It would also show if there exists a special promotion system for a company’s own products and so forth. In many respects, it acts like an org chart and to determine _what_ to scrutinize with more concrete actions as regulators and the public. It provides a map and that’s better than a black box or Skinner Box where we are the subjects.