You may remember that I concluded Part 1 of this contribution by stating that:
“We must support appropriate legislation that protects our personal information, that protects minors from inappropriate content and adults from scams and addiction.”
Unfortunately, corporations, as noted by The Centre for Human Technologies (www.humantech.com) are caught in an arms race to deploy their new technologies and get market dominance as fast as possible. They are releasing and incorporating in their platforms new algorithms not tested for safety.
In turn, the narratives they present are shaped to be more about innovation and less about potential threats. AI and social media companies are quickly deploying their work to the public instead of testing it safely over time. They are in a race for market dominance.
The attention economy is made up of anything trying to capture our limited attention. Because companies can profit from our attention, there is intense competition within the attention economy.
Everything we do online is monitored and analysed. Everything we’ve ever clicked on, how long we’ve hovered over a post in our feeds, how deep we've scrolled on our friends’ profiles – it’s all data that helps companies study us better.
They are able to track behaviours like the types of videos we watch, the news we click on, the products we search for, who we talk to, and which posts we linger on.
Apps then feed this information into complex algorithms that determine which content to show us. Generally, algorithms use what they know about us to show us content that gets us to like, click, and share.
They collect in-depth data about how to influence our decisions, then sell that influence to the highest bidder. The more time they can get us to spend scrolling and clicking, the more data they can collect and the more ads they can sell.
But once we understand social media companies’ business model (how a business designs products and services to generate revenue) it’s obvious that their interests are not aligned with our values.
Because social media apps are caught in a race for our attention, they tend to promote more provocative, attention-grabbing content. That’s what keeps us engaged and coming back.
In this environment, we see increasingly fake versions of each other, as well as a fake version of the world around us. The algorithm doesn’t show you everything that the people you follow post – it shows you the content that is most likely to get you to like and share.
The reality is, social media apps are free to us because we are the product being sold.
These mechanisms, in turn, are the result of ways of thinking within technology companies. Assumptions like “if people are engaging with our product, it must be helping them live better lives” are baked into the way that technology is built.
Together, these patterns, mechanisms, and ways of thinking make up a system that has harmed society in countless ways, including:
. Skewing our Sense of the World: Algorithms promote misinformation, conspiracies, and fake news.
. Undermining our Relationships: A focus on short digital communication results in less empathy, more confusion, and misinterpretation.
. Disrupting Attention & Cognition: Constantly checking our phones leads to loss of crucial abilities including memory and focus.
. Degrading Physical & Mental Health: Social media use has been shown to contribute to stress, loneliness, addiction, and increased risky health behaviours.
. Polarizing our Politics & Elections: Political influence sold to the highest bidder leads to widespread propaganda, distorted dialogue, and voter suppression.
. Amplifying Systemic Oppression: Technology built by a small number of privileged engineers often amplifies racism, sexism, homophobia, and ableism.
. Challenges for Young People: Research shows that harms from developmental delays to increased risk of self-harm are particularly prevalent among young people.
Each of these problems is the subject of extensive study. While they may seem distinct, they share a root cause: technology that is incentivized and over-optimized to capture attention from its users.
Safety guardrails you may assume exist actually don’t. AI chatbots (a computer program designed to simulate conversation with human users, especially over the internet) have been added to platforms children use, like Snapchat.
In fact, half of AI researchers believe there's a 10% or greater chance that humans will go extinct from their inability to control AI. The question is, would you board a plane when half the engineers who realized it would tell you that there are 10% or greater chances that the plane will crash?
It is worth remembering that when we invent a new technology, as Artificial Intelligence, we uncover a new class of responsibility. If that technology confers power, it will start a race for supremacy among corporations and other players - and if we don’t coordinate it, the race will end in tragedy.
To build a better system, we will have to deeply reconsider these beliefs, and find new ways to connect with what matters to us, as Rotarians.
Beyond individual change, advocacy is an important way to push for change. When we raise our voices and put intense pressure on companies and ask for appropriate laws to protect society from harm caused by AI and social media.
It happened before, the once-unstoppable cigarette companies have been forced to pay for the public health costs of their products, and for anti-smoking marketing campaigns. Oil companies are pressured to make clean energy investment as the costs of climate change become clearer to an increasingly activated public. Consumer advocacy has made a difference in industries ranging from meatpacking to pesticides.
AI will undoubtedly bring tremendous benefits in all areas of our life but only when deployed responsibly, and this is what we Rotarians should be asking for.
I wish to acknowledge the immense support provided freely by the online resources Centre for Human Technology in writing this contribution and I encourage all Rotarians to visit their website and to listen to their podcast to know more about AI.